Nidan Foods reported on its company website that it sold 191 million litres of fruit juice in the six month period, a figure that helped to drive sales growth by 66 per cent, although the company gave no monetary figures for the results.
The company said that the main growth had come from its My Family brand, which increased its sales by 53 per cent during the period, while sales of the Champion brand had increased by 25 per cent.
The company added that it had increased its sales by concentrating on developing its regional distribution during the six month period, saying that success in areas such as Samara, Nizhny and Kazan had all helped to drive the figures.
Last year the company managed to ride a wave of significant growth in the Russia fruit juice sector, increasing revenues 43 per cent to $143 million. This year the company is planning to up production to 365 million litres, which it estimates will see revenues exceed $200 million. In an effort to achieve this the company has announced a series of new launches including a new premium brand, Caprice, back in March this year and a new sports energy drink that was launched in December last year.
All of these measures are expected to increase the company's share of the market from the current 15 per cent to 18 per cent by 2005.
There has been much change in the Russian fruit juice sector in recent years. Only two years ago Wimm-Bill-Dann (WBD) was the undisputed market leader with a 40 per cent share of the fruit juice sector. However, in 2003, WBD's share of the market fell, as competitors Lebedyansky and Multon, together with Nadin adjusted their production to the demands of a market that in 2003 grew by 19 per cent. In turn all of these players were able to increase their production by between 35 and 40 per cent in the course of that year, closing the gap on WBD considerably. The results were that Lebedyansky and Multon finished the year both with approximately 25 per cent shares of the market, whilst Nadin had a 14 per cent share.
Over the course of the last year WBD has fallen victim to its own phenomenal rate of early growth. Now, as it starts to feel the pinch from the rising costs associated with its rapid expansion, the other top three players are closing the gap with increasing alacrity.