Who actually owns Miratorg? The Russians were shocked by the secret schemes of Miratorg. On the verge of sensation

We are more than two times ahead of our nearest competitor in pork production with an indicator of over 420 thousand tons and have taken first place in Russia in beef production - over 100 thousand tons in 2018. These achievements are based on advanced technologies, highly qualified employees and well-structured business processes.

High
production
indicators

We annually increase the volume of our products. In 2018, we produced 114 thousand tons of poultry meat, 423 thousand tons of pork, and 108 thousand tons of beef. Beef production volumes have increased almost 3 times since 2015.

Correspondence
global environmental
standards

We care about the environment, comply with biosecurity standards and adhere to ethical business practices. The environmental friendliness and naturalness of the product remain one of the obvious competitive advantages of Miratorg - we raise animals without the use of antibiotics and growth hormones, our products do not contain GMOs.

Modern
technology and
innovative approach

We are actively developing in the field of modern technologies: automatic maintenance of the microclimate, lighting levels, automated supply of feed and water, the use of robots and automated lines allow us to guarantee consistently high quality products.

Full cycle
production:
from field to counter

We carry out the entire production cycle ourselves: from the production of animal feed to retail sales in retail outlets. This allows us to control the quality of products at all stages, and also ensures the optimal cost of the product and its affordable price on the store shelf.

Qualified
personnel and professional
employee growth

We create new jobs, provide stable work with decent wages, all social guarantees and opportunities for professional growth. Miratorg today is one of the largest employers in the agricultural sector of the economy; more than 37,000 people work at our enterprises. We collaborate with 40 major agricultural and technical universities, have introduced our own scholarship program for promising students and have opened up extensive internship opportunities.

High quality
products
at affordable prices

We offer Russians a wide range of safe and affordable meat thanks to a modern quality management system.


Unexpected data was obtained when compiling the TOP 30 most unprofitable companies in the Bryansk region for 2018. They put the Bryansk Meat Company in it, the founder of which is the powerful Miratorg corporation.

As it turned out, the main agricultural producer in the region, which receives strong support from the state, suffered losses for 2018 of 14,177,532,000 rubles. The figures for other unprofitable Bryansk enterprises are much lower.

The Miratorg company still enjoys tax benefits. It invests in production development, and this may partly explain its unprofitability. But the company also benefits from colossal state subsidies, that is, the economy here is of a special kind, privileged.

It is noteworthy that the Bryansk enterprise is not the only division of the agricultural holding that is unprofitable.

As the Documents & Facts publication reports in the article “Fox Habits of the Miratorg Company,” the Adyghe LLC Koshekhablsky Cheese Factory recently filed a lawsuit against the company’s supermarket chain. Cheese producers believe that the company is illegally using the name “Adygei Cheese”. The author of the article reports that the defendant in the lawsuit, the hearing of which is scheduled for December 5, is the operating company of the Miratorg supermarket chain, Prodmir LLC.

“The company has amazing financial performance,” the article says.

The publication claims that Prodmir has not brought any profit to its owners, the Linnik brothers, since 2012. At the same time, revenue was constantly growing, in 2018 it amounted to 10 billion rubles.

“Is it any wonder that a company can use someone else’s intellectual property when money is apparently being siphoned off from it in the billions?” — the journalist asks.

“The founder of Prodmir LLC is Miratorg-Bryansk LLC, which law enforcement agencies should have paid attention to long ago. Its owners are two Cypriot companies: Agromir Limited and Sided Enterprises Limited. “Mom” is not far behind her “daughter,” if not surpassing her in “cunning.” The company has only 1 employee, revenue is 0, loss is 301 million rubles. The company's value is 8.8 billion rubles. Since 2012, the company made a profit only in 2017; the rest of the time it brought only losses. Can Miratorg explain this economic phenomenon?”

Probably, the owners of Miratorg have never heard of the deoffshorization of business, which is demanded by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the author of the article believes.

“It turns out that a private company, which ranks first in Russia in terms of the size of its land bank, exists and develops at public expense. What if it’s true that she’s moving money offshore? It doesn’t smell like cheese anymore…” the publication notes.

Earlier, Bryansk News reported that the Miratorg agricultural holding, some of whose large enterprises are located in the Bryansk region, has become the largest landowner in Russia. According to Vedomosti, the company owns 1 million hectares of land.

The consulting company BEFL, having analyzed data for 2018, stated that Miratorg for the first time became the largest Russian latifundist. The agricultural holding owns considerable areas on lease, ownership, and other legal grounds. Agricultural plots of 1 million hectares are huge territories even by world standards, experts believe.

Bryansk News reported how Miratorg became an industry leader. According to Forbes, two years ago Miratorg's land bank was the second largest in the country - 676,000 hectares in eight regions. Of these, the Bryansk region accounted for about half - more than 300,000 hectares. The company's business is successfully developing thanks to the enormous financial influence from the country's budget and all possible local support.

Vedomosti reports that in 2018 Miratorg announced plans to increase the area of ​​arable land and pastures to 446,000 hectares due to an increase in the number of cattle in Bryansk, Oryol and a number of other regions.

The company's co-owner is Viktor Linnik, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $800 million. Recently, the Russian government denied information about the existence of family and other ties between the wife of the leader Dmitry Medvedev and the Linnik brothers, who head the large agricultural holding Miratorg. The press service noted that the Linniki are “neither close nor distant relatives of Svetlana Medvedeva.” Svetlana Medvedeva's maiden name is Linnik. The head of Miratorg, Viktor Linnik, earlier answering a question about the same last name, said that “it’s just a coincidence.”

In addition to obtaining land legally, Miratorg does not shy away from other methods. Bryansk News previously reported that the Bryansk Regional Court upheld the decision of the district court, which recovered money from Bryansk Meat Company LLC, whose founder is the Miratorg agricultural holding, for the seizure of land. Farmer Alexey Chernyshev suffered from the company’s illegal actions, from whom the agricultural holding seized land plots used by him for sowing barley. The court came to the farmer’s defense, obliging the company to compensate for damages in the amount of over 100 thousand rubles.

It was also reported that deputies in the Oryol region accused the company of illegally fencing livestock pastures. The head of the department of environmental safety and environmental management of the Oryol region, Natalya Sapozhnikova, said that we could be talking about violations of the federal law “On Wildlife,” since these fences interfere with the natural migration routes of animals. Miratorg rejected these accusations, telling Bryanskiye Novosti that the barbed wire does not threaten animals, and moreover, it guarantees safety: animals will not go out onto the roadway and will not interfere with people.

In April 2018, the company said it expected the Aberdeen Angus herd to increase to 1 million head by 2024. It is obvious that by that time the agricultural holding will have even more land.

In June 2019, a scandal broke out in the State Duma. The head of the capital's Tverskoy municipal district, Yakov Yakubovich, said that the Miratorg company has no place at all at the exhibition of the Bryansk region, which is being held in the State Duma.

Yakubovich stated:

– It’s good that Miratorg does not allow agricultural land to become overgrown. But the fact is that by killing small businesses and farms, aggressively purchasing agricultural land from farmers, while enjoying preferences from the state in the form of preferential loans, the authorities are actually growing a monster that will ultimately destroy farmers.

Yakubovich believes that Miratorg creates few jobs, but uses the infrastructure built at the expense of the local budget.

– I don’t think that Miratorg has a place at all at the exhibition in the Bryansk region. And especially after Mr. Linnik’s strange statements about jamon, according to whom those who are against the ban on the import of imported delicacies are baboons, said Yakov Yakubovich.

Earlier, co-owner of the Miratorg agricultural holding Viktor Linnik commented to Forbes regarding his support for the ban on Russians importing meat and dairy products from abroad. He also gave advice on where to eat exotic and expensive foods.

Miratorg, together with Cherkizovo, Remit and Velkom, which are Russia’s largest producers of meat, poultry and products made from them, proposed to ban Russians from importing jamon and cheese from abroad. The ban is motivated by the fact that foreign products may contain dangerous viruses. This poses a threat to local producers, who are forced to destroy their entire livestock in the event of an infection outbreak. The proposals were supported by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rosselkhoznadzor.

Viktor Linnik previously received an award from the former governor of the Bryansk region Nikolai Denin

Linnik told the publication that Miratorg will not receive any profit from the ban, but the effect for the industry will be great in terms of production safety. Also, the co-owner of the company, which has its own enterprises in the Bryansk region, said that he had never carried cheese or jamon in a suitcase.

“... Jamon must be eaten in Spain, bresaola in Italy, Parmesan in France. If I need something in Russia, I go and buy local products,” explained Viktor Linnik.

Also, the entrepreneur, whose fortune is estimated at 800 million US dollars, called those who are worried about a possible ban bastards, since the public needs to think not about jamon and Parmesan, but about the development of their own country:

“They threw a tantrum out of nothing, balabols,” noted the president of Miratorg.

Now the “balabols” demand an explanation of how, with gigantic financial support from the state and active lobbying of the interests of the agricultural holding by local authorities, the non-balabol Linnik manages to operate at a loss. Is this explained only by investments in production?

1. Gutserievs, $5.65 billion

  • Mikhail Gutseriev , Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Safmar Group, Chairman of the Board of Directors of NK Russneft. Source of wealth: oil, coal, real estate, retail trade. Age: 61 years old. Marital status, children: married, two children. City of residence: Moscow
  • Said Gutseriev (son), member of the board of directors of the Safmar group, general director of NK Forteinvest. Source of wealth: oil, finance, retail. Age: 31 years old. Marital status, children: married, son. City of residence: Moscow
  • Sait-Salam Gutseriev (brother), General Director of A.N.D. Corporation. Source of wealth: real estate, oil, retail. Age: 60 years old. Marital status, children: married, five children. City of residence: Moscow
  • Bilan Uzhakhov (nephew), General Director of M.Video. Source of wealth: retail. Age: 32 years. Marital status, children: married, two children. City of residence: Moscow

GUTSERIEV CLAN retained first place in the ranking of the richest families, but reduced his total wealth by $320 million. The changes affected not only the size of the family capital, but also its structure. The fortune of Mikhail Gutseriev’s son Said has doubled: in January 2019, his father transferred to him his share in the Cypriot Landbury Trading, which owns 30.4% of the shares of the Safmar Financial Investments holding, which unites the family’s financial assets. In the spring, Safmar bought a controlling stake in the Afipsky Oil Refinery, which Said will modernize. The group's oil and coal assets and a share in Safmar Retail, which were previously owned by his uncle Sait-Salam, were transferred to him. Mikhail Gutseriev’s brother lost not only his shares in these assets, but also his place on the board of directors of Russneft: in May, when a new board was elected, he recused himself. Mikhail Gutseriev’s nephew Bilan Uzhakhov owns 10% of M.Video shares and holds the position of general director in this company. The Safmar group is still led by Mikhail Gutseriev himself. In May, Cypriot companies controlled by father and son increased their stake in the Kuzbass Fuel Company (KTK), one of Russia's largest producers and exporters of thermal coal, from 2.12% to 18.9%.

2. Rotenberg, $5.18 billion

  • Arkady Rotenberg , Chairman of the Board of the Russian Hockey Federation, General Director of the SKD Yavara-Neva Foundation. Source of wealth: industrial construction, finance. Age: 67 years old. Marital status, children: divorced, five children. City of residence: Moscow
  • Boris Rotenberg (brother), member of the board of directors of SMP Bank. Source of wealth: finance, oil services. Age: 62 years. Marital status, children: married, five children. City of residence: Moscow
  • Igor Rotenberg (son), main owner of the Gazprom Burenie company. Source of wealth: oil services, real estate. Age: 46 years old. Marital status, children: married, three children. City of residence: Moscow
  • Lilia Rotenberg (daughter), co-owner of TPS Real Estate. Source of wealth: real estate. Age: 41 years old. Family status: Married. City of residence: Moscow

ROTENBERG remain in second place in the ranking of families since 2015. They earned their billions thanks to contracts from Gazprom and other government orders, in particular for the construction of the Kerch Bridge, which cost the budget 228 billion rubles. The largest government orders continue to compensate Putin's friends for damage from international sanctions. Now Arkady Rotenberg’s Stroygazmontazh has a new project in Crimea - designing a yacht marina, for the construction of which 7.2 billion rubles will be allocated from the budget. In July 2019, his company Mostotrest won the competition for the construction of the North-Eastern Expressway in Moscow for 52 billion rubles. Arkady has been on the sanctions lists of the US Treasury and the European Union since 2014. His younger brother Boris, a citizen of Finland, and his son Igor (since 2018) were also subject to American sanctions. Arkady's daughter Liliya was not affected by the sanctions. It was to her that in 2018, brother Igor managed to transfer the family share in TPS Real Estate. Lilia used to live in Berlin, her company Vitalis-medical was organizing treatment in Germany. The media call her husband businessman Evgeniy Romaskevich, former deputy general director of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, president of the Rotex company, which organizes exhibitions in Europe and the CIS.

5. Yevtushenkovs, $1.94 billion

  • Vladimir Evtushenkov,Chairman of the Board of Directors of AFK Sistema. Source of wealth: telecommunications, real estate, agribusiness, medicine, children's products. Age: 70 years old. Marital status, children: married, two children. City of residence: Moscow
  • Felix Evtushenkov (son), member of the board of directors of AFK Sistema, chairman of the board of directors of MTS PJSC. Source of wealth: telecommunications, real estate, agribusiness, medicine, children's products. Age: 40 years old. Marital status, children: married, four children. City of residence: Moscow

CHILDREN OF THE FOUNDER AFK "Sistema" Vladimir Evtushenkov Tatyana and Felix initially built their careers in their father's companies. Tatyana worked for a long time at MTS, where she was responsible for strategy and development as vice president, then for about six years at Sberbank, as an adviser to the chairman of the board. As an investment professional, she is a partner in her father's fund, Redline Capital. Felix worked his way up from a specialist in the legal department to first vice president at Sistema JSFC. “I had little experience, so where I was sent, I went there,” he said in an interview with Forbes about his appointment to the legal department. In June 2018, Vladimir Yevtushenkov transferred 2.5% of Sistema shares to his son, and in November - the same amount, increasing his share to 5.18%. The share of the former president and member of the board of directors of AFK Sistema Mikhail Shamolin is much smaller - 0.3% of the holding's shares, while the current president Andrei Dubovskov has 0.024% of the shares. In June 2019, Felix became chairman of the board of directors of MTS. His wife Vera is also involved in business. She, together with Teimuraz Shengelia, the former top manager of Detsky Mir, owns Vesta Development. The company is developing a site in the center of Moscow that previously belonged to Sistema.

6. Rakhimkulovs, $1.89 billion

  • Megdet Rakhimkulov , Member of the Board of Management Company Kafijat. Source of wealth: investments. Age: 73 years old. Marital status, children: married, three children. City of residence: Moscow
  • Timur Rakhimkulov (son), member of the board of management company Kafijat. Source of wealth: investments. Age: 42 years. Marital status, children: n/a. City of residence: Budapest, Hungary
  • Ruslan Rakhimkulov(son), member of the board of management company Kafijat. Source of wealth: investments. Age: 40 years old. Marital status, children: n/a. City of residence: Budapest, Hungary

RAKHIKULOV FAMILY acquired a billion-dollar fortune thanks to the long-standing connections of the head of the family, Megdet Rakhimkulov, with Gazprom. He began working at the USSR Ministry of Gas Industry back in 1971. In 1989–1992, he was the general director of Gazexport, a subsidiary of Gazprom. In 1994, his company Interprokom became a co-founder of the Hungarian trader Panrusgas, which supplied Gazprom products to Hungary. With the money received from gas trading, Rakhimkulov bought shares of Hungarian companies. The main family asset today is a large stake in the Hungarian OTP Bank (7.22%). The investments of Megdet and his sons are managed by the Budapest-registered company Kafijat, in which the father owns 71.4% of the shares, and sons Timur and Ruslan each have 14.3%. Rakhimkulov’s eldest son from his first marriage, Rinat, together with his half-brothers, is on the board of Kafijat, but has no share in its assets. In July 2019, the Hungarian press reported the family's purchase of several hotels in Siófok on the shores of Lake Balaton and their plans to build a large luxury hotel. The Rakhimkulovs also own Symbol Budapest, a famous restaurant and nightclub in Óbuda.

10. Mikhailovs, $1.16 billion

  • Lidiya Mikhailova, With owner of the Cherkizovo Group. Source of wealth: agribusiness. Age: 61 years old. Marital status, children: divorced, two children. City of residence: n/a
  • Sergey Mikhailov (son), General Director of Cherkizovo Group. Source of wealth: agribusiness. Age: 41 years old. Marital status, children: married, son. City of residence: Moscow
  • Evgeniy Mikhailov (son), Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cherkizovo Group. Source of wealth: agribusiness. Age: 37 years old. Marital status, children: married, son. City of residence: Moscow
  • Lyudmila Mikhailova(niece), financial director of Cherkizovo Group. Source of wealth: agribusiness. Age: 43 years old. Marital status, children: married, two children. City of residence: Moscow

LARGEST IN RUSSIA meat producer Cherkizovo Group is a classic example of a family business. Its founder, Igor Babaev, entrusted the management of the company to his eldest son, Sergei Mikhailov, in 2006; his youngest son, Evgeniy, then became its director for business development. In 2016, he headed the board of directors of Cherkizovo instead of his father. Also in 2016, Babaev completely withdrew from the group’s capital, transferring his shares to his family. Today, Sergei and Evgeniy each own 26.3% of the shares of Cherkizovo, Babaev’s ex-wife Lidia Mikhailova - 29.5% of the shares, including 15.1% transferred to the trust. She lives in Europe and is not involved in the company's affairs. Lyudmila Mikhailova, the group’s financial director and Babaev’s niece, has a small share (0.3945% of shares). Her husband Richard Sobel is on the board of directors of Cherkizovo. Another family member, CEO Sergei Mikhailov’s wife Anastasia, heads the PR department. Babaev lives abroad with his new wife and two children, and comes to rest in Altai, to his dacha. He still helps the company, using his authority and connections. In December 2018, when the Cherkizovo group bought Altai Broiler, Babaev met with the governor of the region, Viktor Tomenko.

The owners of the Miratorg holding, the Linnik brothers, know how to negotiate with the authorities. Thanks to unprecedented government support, they created the largest pig-breeding complex in Russia, and now they have set their sights on an untapped segment - beef production.


Text: Elena Loktionova


Employees of pig-breeding complexes of the Miratorg holding are prohibited from communicating with pigs outside of working hours. It is strictly forbidden to keep these animals on your own farms (and most employees live in villages) - this is even stipulated in employment contracts. “We recently visited more than 1,300 farmsteads of our employees. We identified 16 violators who were severely punished,” says Sergei Nefedov, general director of the BelgoGen pig farm, part of Miratorg, as we tour the holding’s property near Belgorod.

The draconian measures are understandable. Now, when the African plague is raging in the south of Russia (there is no vaccine for it - farms where sick animals are found are burned to the ground), biosafety is paramount for Miratorg. “To enter the pig farm, employees take a shower and change into overalls, including even underwear.”

Pig farms are the main asset of Miratorg. They are part of an agricultural holding that the company built in the Belgorod region and into which it invested 25 billion rubles over five years. Now this holding is the largest in Russia. It includes a grain company, an elevator, a feed mill, 10 pig farms, a slaughter and primary meat processing enterprise "Korocha Pig Complex", logistics companies and distribution centers. In total, the pig farms are designed to produce 1.15 million heads per year. In 2009, more than 840 thousand marketable livestock (later going to slaughter) were raised here. The Korocha Pig Farm, launched in June 2009, had already reached full capacity by the end of the year: 2 million heads (the missing raw materials are bought from Belgorod farms), or 165 thousand tons of meat in slaughter weight.

Quite a lot, considering that the industrial production of pork in Russia, according to Rosstat, is 800 thousand tons per year (another 1.2 million tons come from private households). Quotas for the supply of imported pork are 500 thousand tons per year, and part of this pie also goes to the co-owners of Miratorg, brothers Viktor and Alexander Linnik, since in addition to production they are engaged in importing meat.

Having created their “pork” empire, Linniki decided to move on: to engage in the production of beef cattle (cattle). If the project in the Bryansk region is launched, Miratorg will become a leader in this segment. “It’s like this all over the world. First, poultry farming develops, since the growing period for poultry is only 42 days. Then pig farming is six months, and, finally, cattle, where the animal grows for 1.8 years,” says Miratorg president Viktor Linnik. “But "For large-scale projects to develop, they must be supported by the state. I hope it is already ready for this."

39 thousand tons products can be simultaneously stored in refrigerators of Miratorg low-temperature warehouse complexes located in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad

Without a sea of ​​blood


While Sergei Nefedov and I are traveling around Miratorg enterprises, I feel like a correspondent for the program “Rural Hour”. All around the fields, however, there is no thick rye.

“It’s better to come to us in the spring, when everything is in bloom,” says Sergei Nefedov. “Look: these fields belong to us, and these too.” Here are our pig farms, but they won’t let us in, everything is very strict with biosafety. In general, we have a lot of advanced technologies. For example, fields are cultivated using a no-till method. We transport piglets on special three-story livestock carriers - there are even drinking bowls inside. And in terms of pork production, we are no worse than American and Canadian enterprises.

- What does this mean?

— For example, there is such an indicator as feed conversion. That is, how much feed needs to be spent to get 1 kg of weight gain for a pig. We use 3 kg of feed, while many Russian farms use 5-6 kg. But feed is 70% of the cost. As a result, our cost is lower (40-45 rubles per 1 kg of pork versus 50-65 rubles on the market average.— SF).

- So, is everything okay with you? Is there anything bad?

— There is a problem with personnel. We have to look for people throughout the region, train them, explain: we don’t have a collective farm, but a modern production facility. Here both discipline and knowledge are needed.

We were allowed on a tour of Korocha, including the slaughterhouse. I was already prepared to see the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” but everything turned out to be not so dramatic. Pigs are first gassed and only then slaughtered - as Viktor Linnik says, this is the most humane method of slaughter. There is no sea of ​​blood - everything is quite clean. There are almost more robots at the factory than people. The most “advanced” robots scan the carcass and then cut it precisely in half. The production is waste-free - for example, plasma is made from blood (it is then added to animal feed), and flour is made from bones. Products like ears and tails are shipped to Southeast Asia, where good money is paid for them.

In addition to Asia, the owners of Miratorg are going to export Korocha's products to Europe, so the plant was initially built with the expectation that it would be certified according to EU standards. “Europeans have very strict requirements. Even the window sills in workshops must be at a special angle so that bacteria do not accumulate,” says Viktor Linnik. “We first installed the window sills incorrectly. We had to redo them.”

Both “Korocha” and the plant for the production of semi-finished meat products “Concordia” (also part of Miratorg; launched in the Kaliningrad region in 2007) were designed at the construction stage so that they could later be certified for supplies to the Russian network McDonald's company. It has no less stringent requirements than the Europeans. Thus, Korocha employees involved in production have pockets tightly sewn on their work coats. This is McDonald's order - not to bring anything extra into the workshops or take out.

Korocha supplies pork to Russian McDonald's restaurants. And at the end of 2009, Miratorg agreed with McDonald's that Concordia would produce hamburgers, McChickens and McNuggets. “Concordia immediately focused on deliveries to our restaurants and introduced appropriate quality standards,” says McDonald’s PR manager Nina Prasolova. “We plan that by the end of the year Miratorg will supply us with 85% of the volume of chicken products.”

25 billion rubles. invested the holding in the creation of a full-cycle pig farm in the Belgorod region. Now Viktor Linnik needs another 17 billion rubles. for a complex for the production of beef cattle in the Bryansk region

Down with foreigners


Despite deliveries to McDonald's and Asian countries, as well as plans to develop Europe, the Linniks are pathologically unable to conduct joint farming with foreigners. Although it all began with them. In 1991-1992, the brothers organized excursions for Western tourists And in 1995 they began to import meat, creating the Miratorg company. “Quite quickly they realized that they needed to organize their own production,” recalls Viktor Linnik. “Doing only import and distribution is a thankless task. In this case, you are a merchant, a reseller - and everything negative that can be said about you will definitely be said.”

In 2005, two years after the introduction of pork import quotas, Miratorg became a co-owner of two Belgorod pig farms, which belonged to the French company BelgoFrance. However, already in 2007, Linniki bought out its share from BelgoFrance and began to develop independently. “In four years of work, the French were able to create a herd of 2.5 thousand sows, and in five years we were able to create a herd of 53 thousand. We just have different approaches to management. If we were still working as a joint venture, we would have endless discussions "Linnik explains.

The brothers’ cooperation with the Brazilian Sadia, with which Concordia was built, also did not work out. The enterprise with a capacity of 58 thousand tons of products per year, in the construction of which 4.15 billion rubles were invested, according to Linnik, is now at 60% capacity, and before Miratorg bought its 60% share from Sadia last summer, was completely idle. The head of Miratorg is again guilty of different work styles. “It takes us a day from making a decision to its implementation. And they can take three months,” explains Viktor Linnik. “Perhaps that’s why Sadia was absorbed in the end (in 2009, the Brazilian company suffered losses for the first time in history and was acquired by its local competitor Perdigao.— SF). In general, I made a vow to myself that I would no longer have joint ventures with foreigners."

However, Miratorg does not have good relations with Russian companies either. "Korocha Pig Farm" Linniki was initially built together with another large pork producer, also from the Belgorod region, the Agro-Belogorye company. But pretty soon the brothers bought out her share and continued construction on their own.

25.7 piglets- this is the yield of marketable piglets per sow at Miratorg. The average for other Russian enterprises is 15.3. Western European producers also lag behind: in Germany the output is 20.2 piglets per sow, in Denmark - 21.9

Pork "disease"


It seems that Linniki profess the principle “I carry everything I have with me.” They not only created a full-cycle pork production enterprise - they also have their own transport company (about 400 vehicles), distribution centers, and branches in different cities. “We have to do everything ourselves, no one provides the necessary services,” explains Linnik. “We work with all segments of the market - with processors, with HoReCa, chains and isolated stores. We need to deliver our product at a stable temperature in a short time.” .

When the Miratorg complexes were being built, the Linniks flew here at least once a week and, putting on rubber boots, inspected how the construction was going. “They are passionate about the cause,” says Miratorg PR manager Ekaterina Shchetinina. As a result of the “illness,” the brothers managed to create a business whose turnover in 2008 exceeded 28 billion rubles. According to Viktor Linnik, turnover is expected to reach 32 billion rubles in 2009. (the results of the year have not yet been summed up). Probably, expectations are destined to come true - for the nine months of 2009, revenue amounted to 23.15 billion rubles - 13% more than for the same period in 2008. EBITDA grew by 42%, to RUB 3.27 billion, and net profit by 20%, to RUB 1.64 billion.

Although the holding’s own production is growing, its income does not exceed a third of total revenue. However, this direction has become the most profitable for Miratorg - its share in the total profit for the nine months of 2009 reached 88%. It is not surprising that although Linniki plans to maintain the volume of meat imports this year (150 thousand tons), they expect to significantly increase their production, bringing its share of revenue to 70%. It fits perfectly into the import substitution strategy promoted by the Russian authorities.

3rd place belonged to Miratorg in the pork market (in tons of live weight) in 2008, according to the Institute of Agricultural Marketing. After the commissioning of the Korocha Pig Farm, the holding became a leader

Heavy beef


When Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the Korocha Pig Farm last summer, he spent two and a half hours there instead of the planned half hour. “Then we all almost missed the plane,” recalls Shchetinina.

Viktor Linnik tries to maintain good relations with the authorities. They reciprocate by providing loans, government guarantees and interest subsidies. Thus, the project in the Belgorod region was largely financed by Sberbank. Last year, Miratorg received a loan of 1.36 billion rubles from VEB, which was necessary to complete the construction of pig farms. “Without subsidies, we definitely would not have achieved significant results. Because the projects are long-term,” says Viktor Linnik. “And only banks with state participation can obtain large long-term loans.”

Large-scale construction resulted in debts. At the end of September 2009, Miratorg's total debt amounted to 21.5 billion rubles, and its ratio to EBITDA was 4 (for manufacturing companies with a long-term investment program, the normal ratio is 2-2.5). “But we have eight-year loans, subsidized by 80%, the effective interest rate is only 5-6%,” explains Linnik. “Plus, we will begin to repay them only in two or three years.”

However, in addition to the funding that has already been received, Linnik still needs money. He started a new large-scale project, now for the production of beef cattle in the Bryansk region. A grain company has been created there in order, as in the Belgorod region, to provide production with its own feed. The project requires 17 billion rubles, and the period for which loans will be taken will be at least 12 years - three to four years will pass from the start of the project to the receipt of the first products. “This is a good start; there is practically no domestic beef now,” says independent market expert Alexey Semin. “If they start next year, we will only be able to see the first results in five years.”

Viktor Linnik himself admits that if it were not for his experience in pig farming, he would never have thought about being involved in cattle. “This is a very complex production,” says Linnik. “In Russia there are only 17 million head of cattle, and this is mainly a dairy herd. There is no normal genetics, so we will have to import animals from abroad - from Australia, Canada. If the loan we are talking about "We agree with VEB, if it gets the go-ahead, then in the spring we will bring in the first livestock. And in just three or four years we want to bring in 100 thousand heads of broodstock."

Miratorg plans to build a slaughterhouse in the Bryansk region for 50-60 thousand tons of meat and offal. Perhaps then it will be the turn of a plant producing sausages, frankfurters, etc. “We’ll build something or buy someone. But this plant will be in the Moscow region or St. Petersburg,” says Linnik.

ICAR director Dmitry Rylko agrees that the production of beef cattle is the most difficult segment of the industry: “Always, even in Soviet times, it was in its infancy. There is no experience, no specialists. Now there are small enterprises, but they are not very successful. Project ", which Miratorg has conceived, is very complex. They will be pioneers. And here we cannot do without state support."

It is not yet clear whether the state is ready to finance the revival of the cattle beef industry in Russia. At least, the Cherkizovo group has been negotiating with Rosselkhozbank for more than six months about providing a loan of 22 billion rubles. to begin construction of a meat complex in the Lipetsk region. But here we are talking about less risky investments - in the production of pork and poultry meat. As told SF General Director of the group Sergei Mikhailov, Cherkizovo is waiting for the decision of the Ministry of Finance on the provision of state guarantees for the loan. However, the Linnik brothers are no strangers to winning over the authorities to their side.

Many people have heard about the Miratorg company, whose it is and what it does, but not everyone knows how over the 20 years of its development it managed to achieve such results. In this article we will talk in detail not only about the successes of the agricultural holding, but also about its failures.

History of the development of Miratorg: the beginning

This company is a vivid example of how professionalism and perseverance made it possible to create the most progressive holding in the country from an ordinary idea. The company was created by two brothers - Viktor and Alexander Linnik back in 1995. According to unofficial data, they began supplying food products from abroad for the first time 4 years earlier, sensed the prospects of the industry, and then created their own company. According to many experts, until the early 2000s, no one had really heard about them on the country’s major trading platforms. Everything changed dramatically in 2003, when quotas were introduced at the state level for the import of food products, in particular pork, poultry and beef.

At this moment, the Linnik brothers managed to prove themselves and began supplying pork and beef from Latin America, and not from the USA. This was their competitive advantage, since at that time only the lazy did not engage in “Bush legs,” which significantly reduced the relevance of chicken. It is this moment that can be called the first step of a small company, which over time turned into the Miratorg agro-industrial holding, providing the largest volumes of meat products on the domestic market. Another important point was that with the introduction of meat import quotas, the manufacturer invested a huge amount of money in the development of pig farms. And this ended up being the right decision.

Cooperation with Latin America

Before the 1998 crisis, all foreign investors willingly invested their money in Russian traders, since it was a completely new untapped market. With the onset of the crisis, most of them suffered huge losses due to exorbitant devaluation. The Linnik brothers, for reasons unknown to everyone, managed to stay afloat and even provide payments to their investors. It was this moment that determined the future fate of the Miratorg company, the history of which was closely connected with enormous risks and constant financial losses.

In 1999, a company delegation went to Brazil and entered into a direct agreement with the Sadia corporation, guaranteeing uninterrupted procurement volumes. A year later, almost the same contract was concluded with Minerva Foods, which at that time was the largest producer of meat products in South America. Since the restrictions on meat supplies introduced in 2003 were quite strict, and Brazil accounted for a minimum of exports, Linniki was able to supply meat from the United States. If chicken could be imported strictly in specified volumes, then pork and beef were imported in almost unlimited quantities, albeit with higher duties. Since domestic production in the country could not compete with exports, more expensive products from America were sold out very quickly, using a strategy of “throwaway” prices. The company, if it did not suffer losses from this, still barely stayed afloat. The calculation was that the exported volumes became the regulatory quota for the next year, which made it possible to make a profit in the future with higher trade turnover.

Own production and capacity growth

Since 2005, the company’s position in the market has strengthened significantly, the opportunity has arisen to invest in its own enterprises, thanks to which the owners of Miratorg have the opportunity to actively develop the country’s agricultural industry almost completely without external investment. It all started with the Concordia plant, which supplied meat to the Russian branches of McDonald's. Around the same period, misunderstandings began regarding further development on the part of the Brazilian colleagues. As a result, this led to the fact that in 2009, 60% of this enterprise was bought by the Linnik brothers for about $77 million.

In 2005, the President of the Russian Federation openly stated that the agricultural sector was becoming a key sector in the economy. Most of the big players started investing in poultry farming because it had the shortest production period, which was only about 40 days. Those who still own the Miratorg company took a completely different path, investing in the development of pork and beef production, where the production cycle was six months and about 30-35 months, respectively. This decision turned out to be correct. At that time, there were simply no major players in the pork production market, which allowed Linnik to occupy a niche completely free from competition.

The two acquired pig farms, in close cooperation with French investors, made it possible to receive quite good profits and subsequently Miratorg completely bought them out. The proceeds from pork production went to further development of the industry, increasing its competitiveness compared to imported products.

A few years later

Only five years later, having received support from the state and overcoming the crisis of 2008, the Miratorg company managed to take a leading position in the meat industry market. This was largely influenced by the fact that from 2008 to 2011. the level of the company's export products decreased by more than half from 75 to 35%. Subsequently, this figure reached 1/5 of the total production level. This still allows owners to invest in the development of the industry, receiving profits from direct trade.

If you look at the raw numbers, then in the period 2006-2013. the total percentage of the company's products on the market increased more than 4 times - from 3.2 to 13.7%, which represents a huge figure in the quantitative equivalent of manufactured products. To a large extent, this growth is due to the owners - according to some employees, the management team is able to respond to important letters at any time of the day, which largely affects how the agricultural holding functions and develops.

It is worth noting one of the latest innovations - the implementation of a project for breeding Aberdeen Angus beef cows. In order to organize a stable increase in the number of livestock, real American cowboys who knew a lot about breeding this breed were invited to the Bryansk region. The cost of their services by domestic standards looks exorbitant, but the company’s owners firmly believe that these costs will be fully recouped. If we take into account that their actions were repeatedly criticized, but the result was always positive, then faith in the veracity of their hopes increases significantly. This will take cattle breeding to a qualitatively new level, which once again confirms the correctness of such a decision in the prism of the subsequent economic perspective.

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