Wholesale License of Armenian Brandy to Russia Suspended

PanARMENIAN.Net - The wholesale license of P.R. Rus, Russia's subsidiary of French Pernod Ricard, has been suspended, the Moscow branch of Federal Service on Consumer Rights Supervision reported via the web-site yesterday. P.R. Rus is an exclusive supplier of product made at Yerevan Brandy Factory and for a few other world brands of alcohol. The Moscow Service on Consumer Rights Supervision carried out its probe in late July. The result was suspension of wholesale licenses for nine alcohol dealers, including P.R. Rus, reports Kommersant newspaper.



The formal reason voiced by the supervision body was "the breach of sanitary laws." Employees of one of the affected firms, Vitaveritas, said the inspectors leeched as the warehouse director had no photofluorogram available, the mops weren't numbered and the walls weren't painted.



By strange coincidence, all punished companies used to be big importers of wine of Georgia and Moldova. Pernod Ricard, for instance, owns Cahetian GWS winery, which was focused on Russia's deliveries. Besides, Vitaveritas was the sole wholesaler that proved through the court that the Federal Service on Consumer Rights Supervision had no right to confiscate and destroy the wine owned by it. For P.R. Rus, the root problem could be its leading standing on Russia's market of elite alcohol. In terms of value, Business-Analitika says, Pernod Ricard covers around 22 percent of the whisky market, has roughly 12.5 percent on the brandy market and 12 percent on the market of French cognac. The share on tequila market nears 40 percent.



Moreover, P.R. Rus is an exclusive supplier of product made by Yerevan Brandy Factory, which is owned by Pernod Ricard. The company controls 55 percent of Armenian cognac market in Russia. More likely than not, all these achievements prompted the bureaucrats to benefit from the import alcohol crisis and attempt to squeeze even such majors as Pernod Ricard.