OREANDA-NEWS The Baltika Brewing Company is investing 100 million rubles in the modernization of the production site in Voronezh, the press service of the regional government reported.

This was stated to Governor Alexander Gusev by Gleb Steshan, head of the Department for Tax Regimes and state Support Measures of Baltika Brewing Company LLC, at a meeting on Friday.

"In 2024, the company will invest about 100 million rubles in the development of the branch's production. Most of these funds are aimed at upgrading facilities and purchasing new equipment for the branch's production laboratory," Steshan said.

This investment project fits the criteria of particularly significant ones and can count on state support.

"Now there are many enterprises (. . .) where automation is extremely low. We will concentrate resources and broadcast the message of the need to increase labor productivity. So, if a decision is made to modernize, there will be state support. Thanks to automation in industry, we will be able to release workers who are so necessary in new industries," the governor said in turn.

The Baltika branch is one of the largest taxpayers and employers in the Voronezh Region (about 400 people work in production). By the end of 2023, his tax deductions to the regional budget amounted to 2.3 billion rubles, including about 2.14 billion rubles in the form of excise taxes on beer.

Dmitry Vizir, Vice President for Supply Chains of the company, who was present at the meeting with the governor, noted that eight plants operate in the Baltika structure, but it is Voronezh that "has the longest history and is the main one for the company in the Central Chernozem region and in some adjacent territories."

In the Chernozem region, the cultivation of malting barley for the production of Baltika is also organized, in the interests of the company, farmers sow 75-90 thousand hectares with this crop in the macroregion, the Vizier added.

Baltika is the second largest brewing company in the Russian Federation and operates 8 plants.