Roshen

Roshen Confectionery Corporation
Privately held company
Industry confectionery
Founded 1996
Founder Petro Poroshenko
Headquarters Kiev, Ukraine
Area served
 Europe, Asia, North America[1]
Key people
 Petro Poroshenko
Products 200 various types of confectionery
Revenue Increase USD 1 billion (2010)[2]
Number of employees
 10 000 (2012, including subsidiaries)[3]
Website http://www.roshen.com/

Roshen Confectionery Corporation (Ukrainian: Кондитерська корпорація "Рошен" Kondyterska Korporatsiya "Roshen") is a Ukrainian confectionery manufacturing group, controlled by Petro Poroshenko. The leading manufacturer of confectionery products in the country,[4] it united factories in Ukrainian cities of Bershad, Kiev, Vinnytsia, Mariupol and Kremenchuk, as well as in Klaipėda (Lithuania) and Lipetsk (Russia). The name of the company is created from the last name of its owner, Poroshenko.

As of 2012, Roshen Corporation was ranked 18th in the "Candy Industry Top 100" list of world's largest confectionery companies.[3] It has a total annual production volume exceeding 410,000 tonnes.[1][5] It exports to Russia (stopped in July 2013), Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the United States, Canada, Germany and Israel.[5] Before Russia stopped its imports in July 2013, 40 percent of the company's grosses came from Russia.[6]

History

Roshen chocolate.
Kiev Roshen Factory in the New Year 2012

Since March 2013, Roshen began co-production with a contract manufacturer in Hungary.[7][8]

Since July 2013, Russia has banned all Roshen imports due to unsatisfying packaging labelling.[1][9][10][11] Soon after Roshen products were also checked in Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova but this did not lead to complaints.[10] On 21 October the ambassador of Russia to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov stated "There are no problems with the quality of products, they are safe. But there are problems associated with the production technology, using some ingredients that are not certified in accordance with the law".[10] According to the 17 December 2013 Ukrainian-Russian action plan by 1 March 2014 Roshen products should have been back in Russian stores.[12] But on 12 March 2014 acting head of the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare Anna Popova stated that Ukraine had not yet fulfilled their requirements to return Roshen products to the Russian market.[13]

Late March 2014 the Roshen factory in Lipetsk (Russia) was closed down and its local manager director charged with "conspiring with unnamed others to use a registered trademark illegally to extract additional profits".[14] Ukraine and the factory workers suspected the factory was closed because of Roshen's owner Petro Poroshenko involvement in Euromaidan and his participation in the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election.[14] According to Reuters some of the Roshen factory workers in Lipetsk felt embarrassed to work for Ukrainians "swept up in a wave of Russian patriotism since Moscow annexed Crimea" and gossiped about rumors of how the management "paid Ukrainians more money and were cheating the Russians".[14] On 13 May 2014 Russia banned the sale of Roshen products in Crimea.[15]

During the election campaign of the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election Roshen owner Poroshenko pledged to sell all his shares in Roshen if elected President; Poroshenko was elected President but by late December 2014 was not able to find a buyer for the company.[16]

Products and brands

"ROSHEN" (depicted in capitalized Latin script only) is the umbrella brand of all of the corporation's products. The name is a truncated version of Poroshenko, its owner.

Roshen makes a wide range of about 320 types of confectionery, including chocolate and jelly sweets, caramel, chocolate, biscuits, waffles, and cakes,[5][16] but is famous mostly by "Kyiv Vechirniy" chocolate candy and Kiev cakes, produced by the flagship Kiev Roshen Factory in Kiev. The corporation has a wide range of more affordable and less sophisticated products famous for high chocolate content.[9] In 2013 the company manufactured about 200 types of confectionery products and in total produced 410,000 tonnes of products that year.[5]

Public commitments

Recently all company's facilities practice intense and sophisticated decorative lighting on their buildings, especially during national holidays.

Interesting facts

Company's founder and owner Petro Poroshenko suffers from diabetes prohibiting him from eating confectionery.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Attitude of Russian watchdog to Roshen products related to labels alone – Ukrainian confectioners". Interfax-Ukraine. 6 August 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  2. ↑ "Roshen Corporation". UPIGROUP. Retrieved 2011-03-03.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "http://www.candyindustry.com/top25CandyCompanies". Candyindustry.com. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  4. ↑ "Roshen suspends export of confectionery products to Russia". Kyiv Post. Interfax-Ukraine. July 31, 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Roshen products to be allowed back to Russian market after violations eliminated - Rospotrebnadzor, Interfax-Ukraine (24 December 2013)
  6. ↑ Ukraine Election: The Chocolate King Rises, Spiegel Online (22 May 2014)
  7. ↑ "На фоне скандала в России Roshen начал выпуск шоколада в ЕС". Korrespondent.net (in Russian). ЛIГАБiзнесIнформ. July 31, 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  8. ↑ "Roshen выпустил шоколад в Венгрии". LigaBiznesInform. July 31, 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Kuryata, Nina (17 Aug 2013). "The Fifth Floor". BBC World Service. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 (Ukrainian) Росспоживчнагляд почне перевіряти Roshen на якість Russian agency will check the quality of Roshen, BBC Ukraine (21 October 2013)
  11. ↑ Russian inspectors have woeful impression of products of Roshen's Ukrainian factories - Onishchenko, Interfax-Ukraine (28 October 2013)
  12. ↑ Ukrainian wagons, Roshen sweets to return to Russian market in early 2014, says Russian economy ministry, Interfax-Ukraine (20 December 2013)
  13. ↑ (Ukrainian) http://www.epravda.com.ua/news/2014/03/12/426828/ У Путіна кажуть, що Roshen не виконав їхні вимоги Putin said that Roshen has not fulfilled their requirements, Ukrayinska Pravda (12 March 2014)
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Bitter times for chocolate factory in Russia-Ukraine crisis, Reuters (2 April 2014)
  15. ↑ (Ukrainian) Russia banned the import Roshen candy in Crimea, Ukrayinska Pravda (12 May 2014)
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Poroshenko won’t rule out Roshen sale to management in installments due to absence of buyers, Interfax-Ukraine (29 December 2014)

See also

External links