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RUSSIA. Russian Standard, the fast-growing premium vodka brand, sold 101,000 nine-litre cases in duty free in 2008, posting a new annual record for sales in the channel. The company revealed the new milestone through The Moodie Report today.
Russian Standard’s global sales also hit a new high in 2008 – the brand sold 2.1 million cases worldwide across all channels, up on the 1.9 million it recorded in 2007.
In a recent interview with The Moodie Report, Russian Standard Export Director Mykola Kuzemko underlined the group’s ambitions for the travel retail channel.
“Travel retail is a key market for us,” he said, speaking at the TFWA World Exhibition. “The channel showed sales growth of +74% in 2007, against +40% growth for all international sales.”
He added: “Our international export growth will come from new locations where we are introducing the brand, but also from strong organic growth where we are already established. That includes Russia and the CIS States, our traditional base, but we are achieving strong growth in Europe, we will make the US a key focus, and we will target South & Central America, Asia Pacific and Australia too.”
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Established in 2006, the new distillery in St. Petersburg is aiding Russian Standard’s rapid global growth |
To meet the growing demand for the brand, the company has invested heavily over the past two years. In 2006 it opened a new state-of-the-art distillery in St. Petersburg, which can handle production of 4 million cases a year.
Recently the company also acquired a new warehousing facility, which will be converted into a logistics centre, to aid its growing capacity needs. Alongside its expanded production capacity in St. Petersburg, the company’s sales & marketing resources have been enhanced over the past 18 months.
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