Oleg Tinkov

Oleg Tinkov (Олег Тиньков, also Oleg Tinkoff, b. 25 December 1967) is a Russian businessman, who came to prominence by brewing upscale beers for young professionals in Russia.^[1] In 2005, he sold the brewery business for €167 million to InBev of Belgium, emerging as one of Russia's "biggest success stories".^[2]

Life

The son of a Siberian miner,^[2] Tinkov grew up in the town of Leninsk-Kuznetsky in east Russia. He took up bicycle racing while studying mining at an institute in St. Petersburg.^[3] In the glasnost era of the 1980s, he quit his studies and opened a business called Technoshock importing electronics. He sold this in 1997 to open a convenience food company^[4] and eventually, the brewery and brewpub business, Tinkoff brewery. He used the -ff version of his name and claimed links to the imperial family,^[3] to give it a more upscale image.

Tinkoff brewery grew rapidly in an era where Russian beer was of extremely poor quality. By introducing international standards along with aggressive marketing, Tinkoff breweries grew rapidly. One of its ads showed a lesbian interest^[5] and was "too hot for TV".^[2] About it, Tinkov said: "people who are scandalized by this are stupid and narrow-minded."^[1] Within five years, as Russian beer consumption boomed, the company was selling 20 million litres of beer.

After selling the brewery, in 2007, he formed Tinkoff Credit Systems, which pioneered mail and internet marketing in Russia to rapidly become one of Russia's largest credit card companies, currently known as Tinkoff bank, which is seen as a "lightfooted financial services company offering credit cards".^[3] He often appears himself on ads for the company.^[6]

As of 2012, Tinkov has been looking to sell his banking business and possibly create an airline.^[7]

Professional Cycling sponsor

In 2006, Tinkov sponsored a Russian cycling team under the name Tinkoff restaurants, later re-christened as Tinkoff Credit Systems. It participated in the 2007 Giro d'Italia with a very young team.^[8] In recent years, he has been the major sponsor for Bjarne Riis's Team Saxo-Tinkoff,^[9] which has several leading cyclists including Alberto Contador and Peter Sagan.

After the 2013 Tour de France, Oleg Tinkov announced he was ending his sponsorship of Team Tinkoff-Saxo in favour of reviving Tinkoff Credit Systems from January 2014, with a commitment for five years.^[10] However in late 2013, Tinkoff bought Team Saxo-Tinkoff for six million Euros,^[11] and has announced Bjarne Riis would stay on as manager under a three-year contract.

References