PepsiCo may sell one of the dairy plants to Tkachev’s Agrocomplex

One of the main producers of dairy products in Russia, the American PepsiCo, is optimizing its asset portfolio. The company can sell one of the sites in the Krasnodar Territory with a capacity of 180 tons of raw materials per day to the Agrocomplex of former head of the Ministry of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev. The deal will allow the buyer to increase the share of its own processing, reducing dependence on the demand of third-party plants.

Associated with the Agrocomplex named after. N.I. Tkachev’s structure plans to purchase from PepsiCo a dairy plant in the village of Medvedovskaya, Krasnodar Territory, a Kommersant source who knows about the deal said. An announcement about the sale of the corresponding unnamed asset appeared on industry resources in the summer. It says that the plant produced cottage cheese and processed cheese, with a design capacity of 180 tons of raw milk per day. In the summer, the enterprise should be mothballed for transfer to new owners. And in December, as follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Medvedovsky Dairy Plant LLC was created in this area, where 70% is owned by Vitaly Pshenichny, ex-director of MK Zhukovsky LLC and MK Shkurinsky LLC, which are part of the Agrocomplex. PepsiCo declined to comment; Agrocomplex did not respond to Kommersant.

American PepsiCo is one of the main producers of dairy products in Russia. The brand portfolio includes the brands “House in the Village”, “Miracle”, “Vesely Milkman”. The report of Wimm-Bill-Dann JSC (WBD), which manages the company’s dairy assets, indicated 14 production divisions at the end of 2022. The volume of output of VBD dairy products over the past year decreased by 8.7%, to 940.7 thousand tons, the company’s revenue increased to 117.17 billion rubles. against 107.79 billion rubles. a year earlier.

“Agrokompleks” of the former head of the Ministry of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev ranks second in Russia in the production of raw milk after the Ekonova Group of Companies; it also produces meat, sugar, sausages, semi-finished products, etc. In 2022, according to the report of “Agrokompleks”, farms The holding produced 324 thousand tons of raw milk, and the dairy plant processed 24.83 thousand tons of raw materials. Today, according to data on the Agrocomplex website, the holding manages a site with a capacity of 500 tons of raw materials per day, where it produces a line of dairy products, as well as a cheese production plant.

General Director of Streda Consulting Alexey Gruzdev says that the volumes of products produced at the site in Medvedovskaya apparently became insignificant on the scale of PepsiCo or were redistributed to other enterprises, including the neighboring Timashevsky dairy plant with a capacity of more than 600 tons of milk per day. According to him, the value of the asset being sold will depend on the composition and condition of the equipment, and, most likely, the buyer will need to invest in modernization. As Mr. Gruzdev notes, Agrocomplex occupies a significant market share in the south of the country and produces a wide range of dairy products, but perhaps in some segments demand exceeds capacity, and the holding decided to expand them or launch new products.

The owner of the milk producer and processor Kabosh Group of Companies, Dmitry Matveev, says that the surplus of raw milk on the Krasnodar Territory market limits profitability for dairy farm owners, so it is logical that large players are striving to increase their own processing. According to him, this also makes it possible not to depend on the changing demand of third-party dairies for raw materials. As Artem Belov, general director of Soyuzmolok, said, in the first half of 2023, due to a decrease in demand, purchase prices for raw milk fell by 20–25%; the situation began to recover in June with an increase in real incomes of the population. In the processing sector, Soyuzmoloko notes, players are affected by rising costs due to the weakening of the ruble and an increase in the key rate. And retail chains are reluctant to agree to an increase in selling prices, which, although it supports demand, has a negative impact on the sustainability of suppliers, the union pointed out.

According to retail audit NielsenIQ, for the year to October 2023, sales of dairy products in online and offline channels grew by 4.7% in packages and by 8.9% in money compared to the same period a year earlier.

Anatoly Kostyrev