On April 24, the official opening of a new domestic production complex for the production of soft drinks took place in the Novousmansky district of the Voronezh Region. The volume of investments in the construction and equipment of the plant exceeded 10 billion rubles. The capacity of the enterprise is up to 800 million units per year.
The new production complex was built from scratch solely at the expense of Russian investors, without attracting foreign capital. The owner is the domestic company Global Drinks, which is part of the Global Funkshnl Drinks Rus (GFD) group. The latter is one of the Russian industry leaders with a market share of more than 4% in the segment of non—alcoholic carbonated beverages, and more than 9% in the segment of non-alcoholic tonic drinks.
As Vladimir Kochetov, CEO of Global Beverages, noted at the opening ceremony, the launch of such an enterprise demonstrates that "As part of import substitution, Russia is able to independently meet its needs in this industry by introducing the most advanced technologies, as well as increasing its export potential." Thus, according to the company, the planned geography of supplies includes the regions of Russia, the countries of the near and far abroad.
Continuing the theme of innovation, Alexander Maklakov, Global Beverages' Deputy General Director for Production, said: "Modern technological equipment allows us to produce high-quality soft drinks in a closed manner. The level of automation is such that no more than five employees per shift work on one production line. And the front storage warehouse for finished products with a height of more than 24 meters is fully automated — all operations are performed by robots."
At the same time, the opening of the plant allowed the creation of more than 450 new jobs in the region to provide operations that require the direct participation of specialists. Tax deductions are also expected to increase: earlier, RBC Chernozemye, citing the Voronezh authorities, reported that in the first three years of operation of the new enterprise, the budget income of the region from its activities would amount to 1.6 billion rubles. According to the estimates of the Global Beverages company itself, its total tax deductions will exceed 15.5 billion rubles by 2030.
The new plant is located on the territory of the special economic zone (SEZ) "Center" in the suburbs of Voronezh, which started operating in 2019 and is already a platform for one and a half dozen innovative manufacturing companies. The Global Beverages Company became a resident of the SEZ in January 2022. "The construction site was not chosen by chance. The Center SEZ stands out favorably for its geographical location, which provides wide access to logistics routes, a large selection and proximity of suppliers of raw materials and buyers of finished products," explained Alexey Ilyin, CEO of the parent company Global Funk Drinks Rus (GFD), adding that there are plans to expand the business. In order to ensure the smooth operation of the Global Beverages plant in the Center SEZ, the company has launched a project to build its own large-scale motor transport enterprise (ATP). Currently, the company's fleet already includes 430 units of its own new vehicles with refrigerated and insulated semi-trailers. ATP specializes in professional cargo transportation with a guarantee of the accuracy of delivery dates and the safety of goods along their entire route.
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