OREANDA-NEWS. On 28 August 2008 was announced, that CJSC Chumak, the largest producer of tomato-based products in Central and Eastern Europe, held a shareholders’ meeting Aug. 11 to establish an advisory board for the company; appoint board members and elect a board chairman.

Chumak shareholders are very pleased to announce that Dr. George Logush, vice-president of Kraft International and CEO of Kraft Foods Ukraine, has accepted an invitation to act as an independent chairman of the board for Chumak. Other advisory board members include company co-founder Johan Boden; Taras Lukachuk and Alexander Munteanu representing Dragon Capital; David Ostby representing East Capital, and Carl Sturen, managing director and co-founder of Chumak, who has also been named as a non-voting member of the board.

“The advisory board will play a key role in assisting company management in the formation and implementation of company strategy, providing optimum conditions for company growth and contributing to an increase in shareholder value with Chumak . These first few months of cooperation have proven that our investment in Chumak has not only met, but even surpassed our expectations,” said Mr. Lukachuk.

The shareholders’ meeting also approved Chumak’s results for 7M2008, a period in which the company boosted sales by 50% year-on-year, doubled its gross profit compared with 2007 and exceeded the full-year EBIT target for 2008 by 20%.

“We are very fortunate and pleased to have such broad expertise on our advisory board – people with proven backgrounds in leading FMCG food companies. Our joint efforts will enable Chumak to continue to grow and improve its performance and, in addition to developing Chumak’s core business activities, we will also pursue additional opportunities in Ukraine’s rapidly growing food-processing and agricultural sectors”, said Mr. Sturen of Chumak.