Azerbaijan, Baku, May 21 / Trend , U. Ismayilova/
Director of Baltika-Baku Adam Tlekhuray spoke an exclusive interview with Trend .
Trend : What work has been done in Baltika-Baku plant last year?
Adam Tlekhuray: Nearly 20 million has been invested in modernization. Cooking department, fermenting, filtering and bottling shops have been upgraded. The plant capacity has been increased up to 10 million decaliters of beer per year. New brewing copper has been launched in the cooking department and new line of cooling of wort has been put into operation. A modern station of pure culture of yeast, yeast collections and station of cleaning equipment have been installed at the fermentation and filtration department has been upgraded.
A new labeling machine, ring-pull and new machines for sticking excise stamps and thermo-packaging machine have been launched in the glass packaging at the bottling lines.
PET bottling line with capacity 20,000 bottles of 1.5 liter per hour has been repaired in the shop.
The office of the plant, brew house and bottling plant, fermenting and filtration departments, a warehouse of finished products and access roads and area of the enterprise have been repaired.
Q: What impact did the modernization have on work of workers and staff?
A: Mainly previous staff is working at the plant. The staff of marketing and finance departments has been increased to a certain degree. Besides, the staff is undergoing probation in an effort to eliminate differences in approach to work in other Baltika plants in Russia.
Q: How many workers does Baltika-Baku employ at the moment?
A: The company has a staff of 250 people. Beer production in Azerbaijan is seasonal and we employ additional staff during this period. Currently, modernization of the plant leads to growth in production volumes. The work has become more intensive, so we employed a lot of staff. Number of staff employed is around 50 people.
Q: Did global financial and economic crisis impact on work of the plant?
A: No, the crisis had no impact on the modernization of the plant. It was decided to implement all the planned work. We set a goal to ensure technical feasibility of the production line of varieties of Baltika in the Azerbaijani plant.
Q: Which varieties will be produced in the Azerbaijani plant?
All local varieties will be maintained for the Azerbaijani market because one of the main objectives of the modernization of the plant was to achieve technical capacity to improve the quality of varieties. In addition Khirdalan, Bizim pive, 33 Export and Afsana, also Baltika № 3 is being produced and production of Baltika № 5, Baltika № 7, Baltika № 9, Baltika Cooler, and Arsenalnoye will be launched soon.
Q: Do you plan to lower prices on Baltika beer?
A: Prices on Baltika beer is quite reasonable as there is no need to pay customs due.
Q: What is Baltika-Baku's market share?
A: Share of Baltika brand in Azerbaijan, including local brands and exported varieties is 73 percent of beer market. We expect to keep our share at the current level at least as well as attract new customers, taking into account the innovation of products of local brands and the launch of production brands Baltika and Arsenalnoye.
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