OREANDA-NEWS. December 20, 2007. Baltika Breweries announces personnel changes at the top of its Marketing Department. Effective December 17, 2007, the new head of the Marketing Department unit responsible for promoting licensed, low-alcohol and non-alcoholic brands is Liudmila Yakushina. Dmitry Muzychenko, who previously occupied the post of Director for the Development of Licensed, Low-alcohol and Nonalcoholic Brands decided to leave the company for a position at another company outside the FMCG sector.

Marcho Kuyumdzhiev, Vice President of Marketing at Baltika Breweries commented as follows: "We are grateful to Dmitry for his contribution and sincerely wish him further success in his career. At the same time, we congratulate Liudmila on her new appointment and wish her all the best in achieving excellent results."

This appointment followed a serious competition inside and outside the Company. Liudmila Yakushina graduated from the St Petersburg University of Economics and Finance with specialty in marketing. She also received an MBA (in the Executive MBA programme) from the Copenhagen School of Business. For seven years beginning in 1995, Liudmila occupied various positions in the field of marketing in such well-known FMCG companies as Unilever, Gillette and Vena. Between 2002 and 2005, Ms Yakushina worked in the head office of Carlsberg Breweries in Copenhagen as Manager for Market Development, Central and Eastern Europe. Until recently she held the position of Marketing Director in Baltimor Holding.

Liudmila Yakushina had this to say about her appointment: "I hope that my experience of working in the field of marketing in well-known multinational FMCG companies, including work abroad, can assist the successful promotion of the Baltika Breweries brands. I have a responsible task ahead of me - to further the Company’s success in the licensed segment."

Baltika Breweries holds solid positions in the licensed segment. Sales of the leading brand, Tuborg, grew by 79% to the end of Q3 2007. The brand substantially consolidated its leadership of the segment, increasing its market share by 3.4% to 17.0% (according to data from the Business Analytica agency for the first 9 months of 2007). Excellent growth figures were also generated by the Company’s other licensed brands: Kronenbourg 1664 (+154%), Foster's (+62%) and Carlsberg (+41%).