Everyone stayed in their places

Western sanctions and the refusal of international business from marketing activity in the Russian Federation have not yet radically changed the balance of power in the Russian dairy market. According to the results of last year, the top 30 major manufacturers, according to the industry association Soyuzmoloko, are still headed by transnational companies. Danone, whose assets in the country were only recently taken into temporary management by the Federal Property Management Agency, was able to increase the dynamics of annual revenue, while PepsiCo kept it at the level of the pre-crisis 2021. However, cheese producers, including the French Savencia, which continues to operate in Russia, left the rating.

Danone and PepsiCo, following the results of the first year of the geopolitical crisis, led the traditionally compiled Soyuzmoloko, Streda Consulting and Milknews rating 30 large milk processors in Russia. At the end of 2022, revenue Danonewhose Russian assets by decree of Vladimir Putin dated July 16 this year were transferred Federal Property Management Agency for temporary management amounted to 126.9 billion rubles, which is 3.4% more year-on-year. For comparison: at the end of 2021, the manufacturer’s revenue grew by only 0.1%, to 122.7 billion rubles.

At PepsiCo in 2022, revenue increased by 8.7% to RUB 117.2 billion. The company had approximately the same dynamics in 2021, when its total revenues amounted to 107.8 billion rubles. Neither the sanctions pressure associated with the ban on importing certain ingredients (in general, the food industry was not embargoed by the EU and the USA), nor the refusal of transnational producers from marketing activity in Russia prevented them from increasing their revenue, Soyuzmoloko states.

Founded by State Duma deputy Arkady Ponomarev GC “Molvest” once again took third place in the ranking: its revenue in 2022 increased by 17.4%, to 45.2 billion rubles. In 2021, the company had a dynamics at the level of 13.6%, up to 38.5 billion rubles. In fourth place is Komos Group with revenue of 39.9 billion rubles, which is 25.2% more year-on-year. In 2021, these indicators of the company amounted to 31.9 billion rubles. and 18.3% respectively.

PepsiCo declined to comment. Danone, Molveste, Komos Group did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

The total revenue of the top 30 milk processors in 2022 amounted to 784 billion rubles, which is 14.9% more than a year earlier. In general, Russian companies have accelerated their growth rates – up to 15% on average, the authors of the rating note.

“Due to last year’s compensation for a sharp increase in production costs, a number of companies were able to grow by more than 35–40%,” adds Soyuzmoloko CEO Artem Belov.

For some manufacturers, the dynamics of revenue growth turned out to be very significant. So, GC “Ekoniva” showed an increase of almost 80%, to 11.9 billion rubles. This allowed the company, which was not included in the rating in previous periods, to take 20th place in terms of revenue in 2022. Ekoniv explained to Kommersant that last year they processed 40% more products.

Absent two years in a row returned to the rating “Swanmilk”. The company’s revenue in 2022 grew by 35.1% year-on-year, to RUB 9.6 billion, which allowed it to close the top 30 large processors. Lebedyanmoloko explained the growth in production and, accordingly, revenue by restarting production after reconstruction.

Two Western cheese producers left the top 30 at once: Finnish Valio (brand “Viola”), announcing about leaving the Russian market, and the French Savencia, bought a few years ago Belebeevsky dairy plant. The latter company continues to operate in the country.

Unlike producers of drinking milk, which is a socially significant product, producers of cheese and dairy desserts did not show such significant growth due to a decrease in effective demand, says Alexei Gruzdev, CEO of Streda Consulting.

According to him, the costs of cheese producers alone increased by 20%.

According to the expert’s forecasts, by the end of 2023, major changes in the top 30 are unlikely to occur. He predicts an expected increase in production from companies that completed investment projects to modernize their facilities last year.

Ekaterina Rakitina