27 February 2007 - The “AVK” Company has considerably enhanced the collaboration with its Russian partners by opening a distribution center in the Russian Federation. A Belgorod region based daughter-company of AVK is to undertake the customs clearance procedures on the Ukrainian-Russian border, as well as to absorb the financial costs related to import operations.
The Russian distributors would now be able to focus on the geographical expansion of the AVK’s market share and build up the quality of the collaboration with the Russian retailers.
Currently, the distribution center of AVK is making the first shipments of the confectionery products to accumulate the stock. All AVK products, which are exported now to Russia, are shipped directly to the center in the Belgorod region bypassing any distribution centers on the Ukrainian territory. In this manner, time-to-market of the export supplies is being shortened.
Russian confectionery market is of the top priority among export destinations of the “AVK” Company. Similar to the Ukrainian market, Russian middle and premium segments, primarily of chocolate products, grow rapidly.
According to Andrey Dikunov, the AVK’s General Director, the company is pursuing good development prospects in those market segments. “The “AVK” Company holds the leading positions in its strategic segments of chocolate products and chewing jelly sweets. We are striving to strengthen our presence in the same segments of the market in Russia. We have competitive products, we just need to improve their distribution”, states Andrey Dikunov.
Currently, chocolate sweets form the export base of the AVK products supplied to the Russian Federation. According to the 2006 results, the “AVK” Company increased the chocolate sweets sales in Russian by 23%. The company is planning to increase the chocolate products share of exported sweets in the Russian Federation to 75%.