Aston group increases Russian refined oil capacity
vegetable oil manufacturer in Eastern Europe, has begun supplying
retailers with refined deodorised oil from its $60 million
extracting plant MEZ Volshebnii Kray, writes Angela
Drujinina. But the firm faces stiff competition in what is
becoming a highly competitive market.
The new plant, which is situated in the Rostov region, has been Aston's biggest investment project but as CEE-foodindustry.com has learnt, further investment at the factory has been carried out. A few days ago, a new oil refining line at Volshebnii Kray was opened, equipped with German CIMBRIA-SKET and British Europe Crown machinery.
This $22 million new line will allow the plant to produce 130 tons of refined oil a day. In effect, the opening of the refining line is a logical step in the realisation of the Aston group's strategy to produce high quality bottled sunflower oil under its own brand.
However, according to forecasts by some specialists in the sector, Aston is unlikely to remain the leader of the eatable oil extracting business in Russia. Another Rostov-based company, Yug Rusi, is also nearing completion of its own vegetable oil production expansion. This plant will be the biggest European oil extracting plant when it is finally opened, with a projected capacity of 4,000 tons a day.
And there is one more bidder for market leadership. The RusAgro group is planning to increase its annual seeds processing capacity from 450,000 tons at its three plants to 800,000 tons by building a new oil refinery plant in the Voronezh district with an annual capacity of 350,000 tons.
Nonetheless, Aston remains confident that it can maintain its dominance through a combination of quantity and quality. Volshebnii Kray plant managers claim that their refined deodorised sunflower oil conforms to the international quality standard ISO 9001. Additional materials from leading manufacturers such as World Minerals and Sued-Chemie are being used in the production of the oil, and laboratory control at Volshebnii Kray is being carried out by Express-analysers in addition to more conventional methods.
"The situation on the country's eatable oils market proves that we have chosen the right strategy," the chairman of the border of directors of Aston corporation Vadim Vikulov told CEE-foodindustry.com. "The Russian market of bottled (packed) vegetable oils can grow and has great potential for development."
He added that Aston specialists are currently working on the development of a new oil brand name.
The group believes that it is in a strong position to achieve its goal of dominating the edible oils market following the acquisition of the MEZ Millerovsky plant and the opening of the Volshebnii Kray plant in April. The volume of daily sales of the Aston group oil refineries (Volshebnii Kray and Millerovsky) at present is 495 tons of not-refined oil and 130 tons of refined, but next year the company plans to increase the capacity of Volshebnii Kray's refining line further to 800 tons of oil a day by installing a new refining line.
This would increase the plant's overall refining capacity to over 930 tons of oil a day.
The Aston group was established in 1997 through an alliance of private firms and the Swiss company Aston. Current members include MEZ Volshebnii Kray, Krimsky bakery in Krasnodar district, ship repair plant Moriak and three big grain storages. In 2002 external trade topped $237.5 million.
