Yakov Gribov and Anatoly Kipish, who control 74.96% of vodka manufacturer Nemiroff Holdings Limited, have announced that core production will be moving from Ukraine to Russia and Belarus because of a conflict with the Glus family, which owns the other 25.04%, and the Ukrainian authorities. However, Alexander Glus, who controls Ukrainian Vodka Company Nemiroff, has denied such a move.
"We will start producing in Russia, some exports will be produced in Belarus. (…) The decision to move production to Russia has already been made and these volumes will not be returning. Why? Logistics will already be set up there," Gribov said in an interview with the Ekonomicheskaya Pravda publication.
Kipish said in the same interview that the Nemiroff board met in Vienna on Dec. 9 and it was decided that the holding company should be re-registered from Cyprus to the United States to protect the rights of the majority shareholders.
Gribov said the rights to the brand belong to his company, which is registered in Lichtenstein, so the Ukrainian company, if it remains under the control of Glus, cannot export under the Nemiroff brand, and probably will not be able to use it in Ukraine.
Glus told Interfax in response that the statements made by Gribov and Kipish were "unfounded and speculative."
The proposal to register the company in the United and blocking the work of the main company in Ukraine, which were put on the agenda for the Dec. 9 board meeting in Vienna, are not issues falling within the competence of the board of directors, he said.
"Correspondingly, a decision on such issues was not made," he said. It is solely the shareholders responsibility to decide on such issues, he added.
The current Nemiroff shareholder agreement is regulated by British law so important decisions such as changing company capital, its jurisdiction, charter or intellectual property issues must be unanimously approved, Glus said.
"According to this agreement, a share of the owners cannot block the normal many years work of the main company not in Ukraine nor on other markets or move the main company to American or any other country," he said.
Glus said he participated in the Nemiroff board meeting hoping to "move the existing problems toward a constructive direction" and normalize the work of the company, which cannot fully meet demand ahead of the traditional high demand season because of the shareholder conflict.
Nemiroff exports to 72 countries and last year increased sales 3% to 82.9 million liters. In monetary terms, sales totaled $473.6 million, 13.6% up on 2009.
The company owns two distilleries in Ukraine and it produces its beverages at the Yaroslavskiy distillery (part of OJSC Rosspirtprom) in Russia.
Nemiroff began bottling its product in Belarus in October 2010 at the Minsk Kristall distillery (part of the Belgospischeprom concern).
The company was put up for sale in 2010, but its owners were unable to agree on a price with potential buyers, after which a conflict arose between them, which is still ongoing.
