As it has become known to “Kommersant” newspaper, the Moscow Brewing Company that was established by Yevgeni Kashper and Alexander Lifshits, the ex-owners of the “Brewery of Ivan Taranov”, will begin to brew the federal beer brand “Zhiguli”. This brand is a collaboration with the brewers themselves and Andrei Kobzon, the son of a state deputy at the Duma and singer Josef  Kobzon. The fact that the Moscow Brewing Company received the license at the end of April to brew “Zhiguli until 2033 was revealed by Rospatent.

The owner of the trademark is called OOO “Strategy” from the city of Samara (according to SPARK-Interfax founded in august 2008). At the same time OOO “Strategy” received the right for “Zhiguli” in January 2009, from the registered at the address of the restaurant Zhiguli company “New Zhiguli”, which is owned by Moscow Restaurateur and club promoter Andrei Kobzon (Justo, Gazgolder etc.).

The Chairman of the Board of Directors at MBC, Alexander Lifshits, conveyed through the PR officer that the company “Strategy” was created specifically for the development of the trademark “Zhiguli”, with its founders, Moscow Brewing Company and restaurant Zhiguli participating on equal terms. A contract for the bottling of the beer at the MBC’s facilities was signed for an indefinite period.  The plan is to  reach a volume of 1 million hectaliters a year within five years. Besides bottling MBC will organize the sale of Zhiguli throughout Russia. CEO of “Strategy”, Oleg Perminov, said that Zhiguli would be positioned in the same mid-price segment as Baltika, the price of a 500ml Bottle being roughly 23 roubles. This segment contains about 35% of the total beer market in Russia, which in 2008 alone produced 1106 million deca liters of beer (Baltika alone constituted 452 million deca liters of this total, according to the company’s Annual Report)

According to the information provided by agency “Business Analytics”,  the Zhigulevskoe brands had a 4% share of the total beer market last year, produced by several companies, such as Baltika, Ochakovo, Heineken, SUN InBEV, Zhigulevskoe Pivo. According to the press secretary of AutoVAZ, Natalie Sidoruk, the holding has not produced cars under the Brand Zhiguli; therefore they cannot have any claims over the beer.
(From the” Commersant” Newspaper No. 87 from 19.05.2009  by Anna Ryabova)