Nemiroff to complete modernization of Nemyriv distillery in 2024, plans to increase share of exports to 70%.

The Nemiroff company will complete the modernization of the Nemyriv distillery, acquired at a privatization auction, in 2024, the distillery's monthly capacity will amount to 9,000 decaliters, which will completely cover the needs for food alcohol of the company's alcoholic beverages plant and will allow selling extra spirit on the market, the CEO of Nemiroff Yuriy Sorochynsky has said.

"Even before the war, reconstruction began at the distillery, and it continues. Because of the war, some of the suppliers and contractors have stopped, so the deadlines for completion of work have shifted," Sorochynsky told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the Business Wisdom Summit.

He said that if there had not been the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the distillery would have already been put into operation.

The company is not considering purchasing additional alcohol capacities at privatization auctions, Sorochynsky added. "We are carrying out a high-quality reconstruction of our ditillery, and its capacity will be enough to ensure all our plans," the CEO said.

The size of investment in modernization was not disclosed.

Speaking at the Business Wisdom Summit, Sorochynsky said that from the end of February to the middle of March 2022, Nemiroff stopped the work of its eponymous distillery in Nemyriv in connection with the introduction of a ban on the sale of strong alcohol in Ukraine from February 24. Since April, the ban was lifted in Kyiv, and then in other regions. All this time the company did not stop shipments for export. In March-April, export volumes grew by 32%, the CEO said, without specifying absolute figures.

According to him, after the start of the full-scale invasion, the company changed the model of work and began to ship products to external counterparties without delaying payment, which previously was 90-120 days, depending on contracts. "Everyone agreed to such conditions. This actually gave us the opportunity to resume the processes of shipping products for export in March," Sorochynsky said.

The growth of the company's sales in export markets in 2022 was facilitated by the sanctions imposed by many countries on alcoholic beverages produced in the Russian Federation, the CEO of Nemiroff said. But at the same time, a number of logistical processes, according to him, have slowed down. "When shipping products to the U.S. market, containers have been traveling for four months since May. Of these, three months they were on the territory of Ukraine. In a number of countries, it was possible to replace the product of the Russian Federation quickly but in some countries, the opportunities that opened up were not fully used due to logistical difficulties," Sorochynsky said.

He said that in 2022, the share of exports in Nemiroff's total revenue increased to 40%. The company plans to bring it up to 70% without reducing sales in Ukraine, Sorochynsky said, without specifying the period during which such an indicator is planned to be achieved.

Nemiroff's sales volume in 2022 reached 2.4 million 9-liter cases or 2.1 million decalitres. The company paid UAH 1.14 billion in taxes for 2022.

The company's net revenue for 2022 grew by 3.86%, while profit fell by 109%. Absolute figures of revenue and profit are not disclosed.

Nemiroff is one of the largest Ukrainian alcohol producers with production facilities in Nemyriv, Vinnytsia region.

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