The largest wine producer in the Russian Federation in 2015 was the Ariant holding, which increased production volumes by more than 40%. Ariant, Russia's largest vineyard owner, benefited from the fall of the ruble and lower imports

Vineyards of the Ariant holding (Photo: Provided by the press service)

Wine at 10 billion

The leader of the Russian wine market changed in 2015, according to Rosstat data analyzed by RBC. After many years of dominance by factories specializing in the production of cheap products in Tetra-Pak and Bag-in-Box cardboard boxes from imported wine materials, the list of largest producers is headed by the Ariant wine holding, a significant share of whose products is wine in glass bottles from its own Russian grapes .

The Ariant holding of Chelyabinsk businessmen Alexander Aristov and Yuri Antipov includes two large wineries - Kuban-Vino in the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar Territory and the Food Industry Center - Ariant (TsPI - Ariant) in Chelyabinsk. According to Rosstat, in 2015, two Arianta factories produced 37.95 million liters of still and sparkling wines - 48% more than the year before. Ariant representative Roman Gribanov says that in 2015 the holding produced about 70 million bottles of wine - about 40% more than in 2014. The wine holding's revenue in 2015 amounted to 9.6 billion rubles, Gribanov said, without specifying whether this amount was indicated including VAT or without.

Until this year, the first positions in the ranking of the largest producers of still wines in Russia were occupied by companies that primarily bottled imported wine materials. In 2014, the Mineralovodsk Grape Wine Factory (part of the Alvisa holding) was in first place with 32 million liters, followed by the Gatchina Distillery with 30 million liters and the Maikop Victoria Factory with 24 million liters. The largest wine producer from its own grapes, Fanagoria, produced 19 million liters of wine.

Now, in terms of total production of still and sparkling wines in 2015, according to RBC calculations, second place after Ariant was taken by St. Petersburg Sparkling Wines with a production of 33.8 million liters (see table). In third place is Victoria.

In mid-January 2016, Ariant bought another large plant in the Temryuk region - Russian Azov. According to Rosstat, Russian Azov produced 11.1 million liters of wine in 2015. The deal became the largest on the wine market in recent years: according to Roman Gribanov, its amount amounted to 1.3 billion rubles. “The demand for domestic wine increased sharply in 2015, and we realized that we would not have time to satisfy this demand by production only at our own facilities,” Victoria Emelyanovich, general director of Kuban-Vino LLC, explained to RBC the reason for the transaction. In 2016, Ariant plans to increase production by more than 40% and produce 100 million bottles.

Alcohol import substitution

As follows from Rosstat data, still wines became the fastest growing category of alcoholic beverages in 2015 (see infographic). The production volume of still wines in Russia increased by 25%, to 400 million liters. Sparkling wines grew by only 3.3%, to 160.6 million liters. “In the category of still wines, we see a typical process of import substitution,” says Vadim Drobiz, director of the industry agency CIFRRA. “At the same time as the production of Russian wines was growing, imports of bottled foreign wines were also falling; their prices rose with the fall of the ruble.”

According to the Federal Customs Service (FCS), imports of still wine to Russia in 2015 decreased by 32.6%, to 167.2 million liters. The share of imported wines in 2015 accounted for less than a third of the market - 29.5% (versus 42.9% in 2014). About the same - by 33.7%, to 33.25 million liters. — the import of sparkling wines also collapsed. The share of imports in this category decreased over the year from 24.4 to 17.2%.

“It’s too early to say that we can independently produce 100% of wine for our market,” warns Vadim Drobiz. — Imports of finished wine products, of course, fell significantly, but at the same time the volume of supplies of wine materials to Russia increased by 19%. The fact is that Russian factories, which are increasing production, now lack domestic raw materials. It is necessary to increase the area of vineyards in Russia, and this will take at least ten years.” According to the expert, having its own vineyards provides Arianta with a competitive advantage in the market and guarantees leadership in the industry for many years to come.

Ariant was previously the largest owner of vineyards in Russia, and in May 2015 acquired long-term lease rights to 2.5 thousand hectares in the Anapa district of the Krasnodar Territory, expanding the area of its vineyards to 7.1 thousand hectares. The second largest owner of vineyards in Russia, the Crimean Massandra, has about 4 thousand hectares. “Ariant’s strategy is to be the number one wine holding in the country in all areas: in vineyards, in bottles produced, and in revenue,” says Victoria Emelyanovich.

The fact that an active process of import substitution is underway in the wine market was previously confirmed to RBC by both representatives of the retail market, in particular restaurants, and the importers themselves, who began to include domestic wines in their portfolios . Premium Russian wines are present in the wine lists of leading restaurant holdings - Maison Dellos, Novikov Group, White Rabbit Family - and the largest wine wholesalers that were previously focused only on imports - Simple, Eurowine, Alianta Group.

Vodka and cognac froze

After a record drop in 2014, when vodka production collapsed by 22.3%, to 666 million liters, stagnation has set in on the strong alcohol market. Vodka producers, who showed a slight increase of 4.8% in the first half of 2015, failed to cope with the dynamics and eventually set another anti-record, producing 639.3 million liters of vodka. The decrease in production volume for the year ultimately amounted to 4%.

“The fall in vodka production is a very alarming signal,” says Vadim Drobiz. “At first glance, the figure of 4% seems insignificant, but in fact the drop is much larger.” According to the expert, for a correct comparison, to the vodka production volume of 666 million liters in 2014, it is necessary to add about 100 million liters of inventory made by producers before the excise tax increase. “In 2014, there were about 800 million liters of strong alcohol on the legal market, formed from production and reserves,” explains Drobiz. “However, before 2015, no one made any reserves, since the excise tax rate was frozen. Therefore, in reality, the market lost not only the 26 million liters shown in the statistics, but also at least an additional 50 million liters.”

As in the case of wine, the leader in production volumes has also changed in the alcohol market. From Rosstat data it follows that the largest producer of strong alcohol (with an alcohol content of more than 25%) was Tatspirtprom, which produced 90.07 million liters of strong drinks - 24.2% more than a year earlier.

The growth in Tatspirtprom's production is not explained by an increase in alcohol consumption within the republic, but by the placement of orders for the production of brands from federal companies, a manager of a large alcohol company explained to RBC. According to Tatspirtprom, it provides contract bottling services to the companies Synergy and Roust, as well as the Russian Vodka Holding (RVH), which promotes vodka brands Mernaya, Medoff and others. Second and third places were taken by long-term market leaders Synergy (86.2 million liters) and Roust (72.16 million liters).

Cognac production increased by 11.1%, to 76.9 million liters. But from Rosstat statistics it follows that part of the growth in this category was ensured by the annexation of Crimea, whose factories were not taken into account in the statistics for 2014. In total, Crimean factories produced 3.6 million liters of cognac in 2015. The Kaliningrad company “Alliance 1892” (trademark “Old Koenigsberg”) remained the market leader with a production volume of 12.5 million liters (minus 7.9% year-on-year).

Imports of strong alcohol, as in the case of wine, fell along with the ruble. According to the Federal Customs Service, imports of whiskey fell by 22.3%, to 33.59 million liters, supplies of rum decreased by 35%, to 4.76 million liters, and tequila - by 23.1%, to 2.63 million liters.

With the participation of Ksenia Shamakina

The leader has changed on the Russian wine market