Nestle Waters Buys Leading Russian Supplier of Drinking Water

Nestle Waters has announced that it has bought Chistaya Voda [Pure Water], the leading Russian supplier of bottled drinking water.

Chistaya Voda was founded in 1993 and quickly became one of the leading companies on the fast-growing Russian market for bottled water. The Russian market has a promising future: annual growth of over 30% is expected in the long term. In order to cope with growing demand Chistaya Voda opened a bottle-filling factory and distribution centre not far from Moscow which could serve up to 120 thousand people in the Moscow Region.

Provisional results show that Chistaya Voda made over EUR 15 million in sales in 2002 thanks to the company's estimated 40 thousand clients who are mostly in Moscow, the Moscow Region, Saint Petersburg, and the Leningrad Region.

For Nestle Waters this acquisition will strengthen the company's position on the Russian market, as the acquisition of another leading Russian producer Svyatoi Istochnik [Holy Spring] did in July 2002. The merger of Chistaya Voda and Svyatoi Istochnik, which took about 25% of all market profits and had 20 thousand customers, will form an effective and solid alliance on the Russian market

Nestle Waters has been operating in Russia for several years and selling its leading international brands Perrier, Vittel and San Pellegrino through local distributing centres.

Nestle Waters is a subsidiary of Nestle. It is the world's leading producer of bottled water with sales totaling EUR 5 billion in 2001. More information about the company can be obtained at www.nestle-waters.com.