The lack of production facilities in Ukraine and the import of its confectionery products into the country allows Mars Corporation to successfully conduct its business amid a crisis in the industry caused by the rise in prices for raw materials and energy resources, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mars Ukraine LLC (Brovary, Kyiv region) Svitlana Hrukhal has said. “In the field of confectionery, we have everything under control. We import products, and this makes it possible to distribute the raw material base and production resources in several countries and thus compensate [for crises],” she told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the Ukrainian CFO Forum on Wednesday.
According to her, the key trend in the industry is the growth in demand in Ukraine and neighboring countries, which is most pronounced in the segment of chocolate and chewing gum. Hrukhal said that in order to meet this demand, it is necessary to increase production of confectionery products in the region, which is hindered by the rise in prices for raw materials, their shortage, as well as the lack of labor resources.
“If we talk about assessing the development of confectionery products specifically for Mars Corporation, then we have everything under control, and we hope to successfully close this year,” the company’s CFO said.
During the forum, she also said that in 2007 the company planned to build a plant in Boryspil district (Kyiv region) for production of animal feed, but due to unstable business conditions in Ukraine, it abandoned this idea. According to her, for large international companies, the presence of clear and understandable “rules of the game” in the country is a more important factor for investment than well-developed measures of state support for business.
Mars Ukraine LLC is a Ukrainian division of the large international confectionery company Mars. The company sells food and pet care products in Ukraine, produced in Russia and Hungary. Its major brands are Snickers, MARS, Twix, Bounty, Milky Way, M&M’s, Maltesers, Dove, Pedigree, Chappi, Whiskas, Kitekat, Sheba and others.
