Georgian Glass and Mineral Water
Georgian Glass and Mineral Water Co. NV (GG&MW) is a Dutch-Georgian company. It was founded in its current form in 1995, but its roots go back to the beginning of the 20th century. It is the largest mineral and medicinal water manufacturer in the country and is also internationally known. The company produces the mineral water brand Borjomi , the internationally under the name of Borjomi is marketed. The seat is in the Georgian capital Tbilisi . Since the beginning of 2013, the company has been majority owned by the Russian Alfa Group .
history
In 1906, Grand Duke Nikolai Michailowitsch Romanow founded the first large bottling plant for mineral water in Borjomi . He successfully introduced the mineral water brand in Russia . In the Soviet era , water was the main export item of the Georgian SSR . 450 million half-liter bottles were filled annually. After Georgia's independence, mineral water exports collapsed. The state producer lacked the means for the necessary new investments. In 1996 it only had 14 employees.
GG&MW was founded in 1995 by the Georgian group of companies Tbilisi Business Center (TBC), the Amsterdam venture capital firm Venture Capital Investors (VCI) and a former employee of the Perrier company to re-launch the brand. She bought a glass factory in Chaschuri and two bottling plants in Borjomi . GG&MW was the first industrial company in Georgia to receive a loan of USD 10 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank, invested US $ 10 million. The bottling license was granted in April 1997.
In 2005, GG&MW founded the Borjomi Waters Group holding together with the Ukrainian companies IDS and Morshin Plant of Mineral Waters . 70% of their shares are held by GG&MW. The new holding company controlled 50% of the Ukrainian and 8% of the Russian mineral water market in the same year.
Company data and product line
The growth of the company experienced enormous increases. In 1997, 16 million bottles were filled again. In 2002 it filled around 120 million bottles and employed around 1,000 people.
80% of bottled Borjomi Mineral water is exported abroad. In 2006, 60% of this went to Russia and 40% to other countries, including Western Europe, the USA and Israel . On May 4, 2006, the Russian health authority imposed a ban on the import of Georgian mineral water. Since then, GG&MW has been increasingly trying to open up the Baltic states and Kazakhstan as sales markets. In the meantime, however, the Russian import ban has been lifted.
The company's product line includes the carbonated Borjomi Classic mineral water, the still water Borjomi Quelle (since 1999) and the slightly carbonated Borjomi light (since 2001). All products are offered in PET bottles, and Bordschomi Classic in greenish half-liter glass bottles for the catering trade .
Web links
- GG&MW website (en, ge, ru)
- Chemical analysis of GG&MW mineral water, 1996
- Company data of the International Finance Corporation (en)
- Foundation of the Borjomi Waters Group holding (en)
- Borjomi mineral water ban in Russia (en)