15:21 15.02.2017

Decision to close Lipetsk factory made by managers, not trust – Roshen president

2 min read
Decision to close Lipetsk factory made by managers, not trust – Roshen president

A decision to shut down Lipetsk confectionary factory was made by managers of the Roshen Corporation and not the trust managing the company, Roshen Corporation President Viacheslav Moskalevsky has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"I informed them [the trust about the closure of the factory] and that's all. It was the managers' decision," he said.

He said that managers decided 20 years ago to start business in Russia.

"The launch of Lipetsk factory was always the initiative of managers. Poroshenko visited it once in his life – on February 4, 2014. He personally promised me to go there. Production of our sweets has never been linked to the political carrier of Petro Oleksiyovych [Poroshenko]," he said.

Moskalevsky said that earlier Roshen was mulling the acquisition of a factory in Oryol, but then Lipetsk was selected.

He said that the reasons of closing the factory in Russia are not only economic, but also political ones.

"When Putin at a press conference started discussing profit-making of the factory and other things I understood that it is a bargaining chip for him in his political games that could be permanently used. He planned to make it a hostage [systemically prolong the arrest of property] not to allow us to sell it," he said.

He added that over the period of the operation of the factory in Russia dividends from its operations were brought to Ukraine.

"I still think that the money we brought to Ukraine in the form of taxes and dividends from Russia is better than nil. After 18 years I spent on this factory it took two years to burn the factory I have created. I understood the main thing that we would not be Judas," the Roshen president said.

He said that from April 1, 2017 the factory will stop production and by June 1 it will finish selling the stocks. The logistics center in Russia would also stop operating.

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