Global consumer goods corporation Procter & Gamble will invest 2.4 billion rubles ($37 million) in its Russian business this year, the company’s head for Eastern Europe and Central Asia told Reuters.
The company plans to expand its distribution center, modernize some manufacturing and localize more product production, according to Sotirios Marinidis.
“Russia was, is and will always be a key market,” a P&G representative told the news agency in an interview. “We’re here to stay, we’re here to keep investing.”
The U.S.-based maker of Tide detergent and Gillette razors has invested nearly $900 million in Russia since 1991. It remains committed to the Russian market even though relations between Moscow and Washington have soured over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and alleged U.S. election meddling.
The threat of tougher U.S. sanctions on Russia last year that could have hindered P&G’s operations has not materialized.
“At the moment, you have what I would call a relatively stable environment,” Marinidis said.
He said between 2016 and 2018, P&G invested $138mn to expand and modernize its two plants in Russia – one in St Petersburg and the other in Novomoskovsk, an industrial city around 200 km south of Moscow.
The latest investment will boost the capacity of P&G’s Russian distribution center, modernize its Tide and baby care manufacturing and localize feminine care product production. Marinidis said that the production of four out of five categories of P&G products was already localized in Russia. Last year, Marinidis had said that half of everything P&G sold in Russia was locally produced.
Russia is one of P&G’s 10 focus markets, which are part of new global restructuring. Others include the United States, China, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
