April 10 2007, 09:30

Wimm-Bill-Dann wishes consolidating its position on Ukrainian juice market

According to information provided by Russian periodical "Kommersant" with the reference to Anton Saraykin, the Press Secretary of "Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods" company, the possibility of the juice production establishment in Ukraine is under consideration. "We believe that Ukrainian juice market has the growth potential, so we are interested in this market", Anton Saraykin specified; he added it would be too early to tell the details. The company representative reminded that "Wimm-Bill-Dann" company has already become the largest milk producer in Ukraine. "Sandora" LLC is the largest local juice producer (occupying 47% of Ukrainian juice market which capacity is estimated to be 550 mln. liters in 2006).

This statement coincided with the information provided by Ukrainian mass media about the intention of "Sandora" company owners to sell the control stake to a strategic investor. The mass media mention Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Russian "Lebedyanskiy" and "Wimm-Bill-Dann' companies among the potential buyers.

The experts of ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal" tell that "Wimm-Bill-Dann" company has actually been bottling juice under own trademark using the capacity of "Kyiv Municipal Milk Plant #3" which the company purchased in 2000. This enterprise mostly produces juices from the imported concentrates; in case "Wimm-Bill-Dann" bought "Sandora" company with the fine tuned raw material base, it would have to reconsider the approach to the juice business. Obviously, the existing structure of "Sandora" business will hardly fit the juice business structure of "Wimm-Bill-Dann" company. At the same time, the strong brands of "Sandora" company have almost monopoly recognition on juice market of Ukraine; to the opinion of the analysts of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal, these brands will inevitably get interested the largest international juice producers.