According to a recent report, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development“s Regional Venture Fund expects to approve US$ 5-6 million of additional finance for beer bottle manufacturing in Ru…
According to a recent report, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development“s Regional Venture Fund expects to approve US$ 5-6 million of additional finance for beer bottle manufacturing in Russia in early 2000. Alexander Vlasov, the director of the Fund that supports small businesses in Western and Northwest Russia, said that the Fund would own equity in a glassworks and grant credits. Beer bottles manufactured in this part of Russia are supplied mainly to major St. Petersburg breweries such as Baltika, Vena and Stepan Razin. However, bottle factories are unable to meet demand by the region“s major breweries, which before the August 1998 financial crash mainly imported bottles, the report said. Imports, though, subsequently became too expensive and the breweries turned to local manufacturers. The Regional Venture Fund has invested about US$ 65 million in the Western and Northwest regions of Russia to date. Selected projects cost between US$ 1 million and US$ 5-6 million and financing usually takes between three and five years.