Dutch brewing giant Heineken said on Monday it has decided to exit its business in Russia, after previously saying it would halt new investments and exports there, anticipating a charge of 400 million euros.
"We aim for an orderly transfer of our business to a new owner in full compliance with international and local laws. To ensure the ongoing safety and wellbeing of our employees and to minimize the risk of nationalization, we concluded that it is essential that we continue with the recently reduced operations during this transition period. In all circumstances we guarantee the salaries of our 1,800 employees will be paid to the end of 2022 and will do our utmost to safeguard their future employment," the statement said.
Earlier, the company said that Heineken would stop the production and sale of beer under the Heineken brand in Russia due to the situation in Ukraine. However, it was planned that all facilities, operational and commercial divisions of the company on the territory of the Russian Federation would continue working. The company also intended to take immediate steps to ring-fence its Russian business from the wider Heineken Company to stop the flow of monies, royalties and dividends out of Russia, with Heineken no longer accepting any net financial benefit derived from its Russian operations.
The Netherlands-based Heineken N.V., a global leader of production of premium beer and cyder brands, has been operating on the Russian market since February 2002 when it acquired the first brewery in St. Petersburg. Currently Heineken owns seven breweries in Russia.
