These licences are seen by many in the food and drink industry as an essential marketing tool. One supplier who wished to remain anonymous said that he bought the title "in order to ease his vodka's promotion process - the rural folk as well as the provincial authorities will be quicker persuaded that my vodka is of high quality."
Certification does not come cheap however. According to the Guild's website, a certificate for Official Supplier status is worth RUR 2.25 million, while a simple Supplier certificate costs RUR 1.5 million. Membership of the Guild of Suppliers is worth RUR 75,000.
One of the latest Official Suppliers to the Moscow Kremlin, RVVK which produces the Flagman vodka brand, has an annual turnover of about $200 million. Experts believe that RVVK could easily spend 1 to 1.5 per cent of its turnover in getting the status.
In addition, any contract with the Guild specifies that a new license owner "must pay the Guild up to 1.5 per cent of its profit from its sales of certified products per year, or no less than RUR30,000."
How much the title is really worth is subject to conjecture. Owners are not required to disclose this, because of restrictions set by the information disclosure agreement signed with the Guild.
However, the Guild claims that any money received from suppliers' license sales will be invested in the further promotion of the trademark.
Indeed according to the Guild's site, there are quite a few companies willing to buy the right to be the Kremlin suppliers despite the high price of the license. These include SovTransAuto, Liggett-Ducat, Kizlear brandy distillery, Nestle Waters and others.
The Guild is also getting tougher about licensing procedures. Mikoyanovsky meat processing plant, which has advertised itself as a Kremlin Supplier since 1933, will probably have to strike a deal with the Guild and "formalise relations". The Guild has already contacted Mikoyanovsky with a proposal to "receive the appropriate legal certification."
The former Russian security service set up the Guild of the Kremlin Suppliers some time ago in order to have the right to sell the logo, by agreement with the Federal Guarding Service (the FSO). A Rospatent representative confirmed to www.foodtechnology.ru that the FSO is the owner of the trademark.
Similarly, the status of Supplier to the Russian Court can be attained by any company, even one that has never supplied anything to the Kremlin. The only requirement is that companies pay a fee and pass certification tests at the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Control laboratory at the FSO.