BELUGA GROUP announces its operational results for 9 months of 2018

• The company’s overall sales continued good performance +2,7 %
• The sales of the company’s own brands remained at the level of 2017
• The sales of imported brands accelerated +47 %
• The export sales grew +29 %

BELUGA GROUP the largest alcohol company in Russia reports that the company’s overall sales for the 9 months of 2018 grew +2,7 % to 9 736 thousand 9L cases. The sales of the company’s own brands remained at the level of 2017 and reached 8 910 thousand 9L cases.

Imported brands accelerated and their sales were up +47 % to 826 thousand 9L cases. There is a strong organic growth in the Spirits portfolio of imported brands, which is primarily driven by the products of William Grant & Sons, rum Barcelo and brandy Torres. Wine portfolio continued dynamism due to the product range expansion and development of distribution.

Export operations demonstrated a very good performance – the sales were +29% and totaled 399 thousand 9L cases. The sales abroad for the reporting period were driven mainly by super-premium vodka Beluga, which keeps strengthening its position in the world market. Germany, China, Israel, India and Duty Free channel in Russia, the USA, India and other countries demonstrated good results in export operations.

Chief Executive Officer of BELUGA GROUP Alexander Mechetin commented on the results for the 9 months of 2018: “The group performs well. We keep diversifying group’s business: by boosting exclusive distribution of imported brands, by focusing on our brands’ expansion abroad, by investing in our own retail network “WineLab”, by exploring new directions and developing business lines, for example the production of premium wines from our own vineyards.

The company sticks to the premiumization strategy: Green Baboon the first premium Moscow gin was launched in September, the distribution of new products of this year “Snow Owl” and “Copper Horse” is expanding, and new SKUs in the ranges of existing brands appear. In the nearest future company will introduce several new brands to the market.

We will continue to develop the potential of the company and its remarkable brands to make our customers the best deals on the market”.