OREANDA-NEWS  On 17 November was announced, that the Baltika brand listed among the three leaders in ratings prepared by the international consulting company Interbrand Group, and each year it has shown a positive growth trend for value creation. In 2008, the brand grew by 9% compared with the indicators of last year. Its value amounted to 2.38 billion dollars, which places Baltika in the position of unconditional leader in the FMCG category among Russian brands. Baltika is the only beer brand to have taken a place among the top ten leaders and it occupied the third slot in the ratings after two telecommunications brands.

Position 14 in the rating was taken by the Arsenalnoye brand, which entered the Long List of the most valuable Russian brands for the second time.

The results of the 4th rating were published in the November issue of Kommersant-Dengi. The methodology of the listing has been certified by all the main audit companies. The value of a brand was determined on the basis of the share of revenues which a company receives thanks to the given brand and the power of the brand, i.e., its position in the market, stability and ability to overcome geographic boundaries and cultural barriers.

According to data from the international agency Canadean published in October 2008, the Baltika brand has taken position number one in Europe based on 2007 sales volume. In the words of Kevin Baker, Beer Service Director of Canadean LTD (UK), the gap between the Baltika brand and its nearest competitor amounts to 16%.

At the end of third quarter of 2008 sales growth of the Baltika brand has amounted to +17% (thanks in part to the growth of the premium sub-brands Baltika №7 (+26.8%), Baltika Cooler (+29.5%) and the new variety, Baltika Lite. According to the Company’s estimates, the share of the Russian market held by the Baltika brand during the first 9 months of 2008 grew by +1.9% and amounted to 14.6%.