The Moscow Brewing Company only started production last autumn but has this year already planned to produce a million hectoliters of beer. Within three years the company plans to increase its range of beverages from seven niche products up to two dozen, with the production ratio beer to non-beer being 60:40.

Planning for the future
For shareholders of the Investment Fund Detroit Investments, Yevgeni Kashper and Alexander Lifshitz, the Moscow Brewing Company is not their first beer project.
Till mid 2005, the two businessmen owned the “Ivan Taranov Brewery”, of which they sold the rights of all the brands and distribution to Heineken. Right after the sale they founded MBC, followed by two more deals; in 2007 Detroit Investments sold it’s 40% stake in VladPivo Brewery to SABMiller, and in 2008 they sold the Belorussian brewing company “Syabar” to Heineken. Parallel with the founding of MBC, two more deals followed, in 2007 Detroit Investments sold its 40% stake in the VladPivo Brewery  to SABMiller, and in 2008 transferred its shares of the Belorussian brewing company “Syabar” to Heineken.

Therefore by 2005, there was already sufficient extensive experience in the distribution and sale of beer. There were numerous contacts with western manufactures and the desire to bring imported brands to the Russian market. A new, state-of-the-art, contemporary brewing facility successfully added to this idea – says Igor Dementiev, managing director of the Moscow brewery Company. “But it differs from other projects that Detroit Investments had previously engaged in. MBC, originally had a completely different ideology and strategy. If before brands and production facilities were “grown” with a purpose of sale to strategic investors, the idea of MBC was to use the accumulated knowledge to prolong the project, not just for one decade but to gradually expand to fill up the power of these interesting niche products within the beer and beverages market. Each product must be unique. The twist could be the quality characteristics, in a price or marketing positioning. By filling the empty market niches with their products, MBC saved itself from having to deal directly with the monster-competition and their products became an addition to the already existing brands on the market.