Arkhyz criminal case. The court terminated the bankruptcy proceedings of the Arkhyz mineral water supplier

By 2014, Geryugov’s company was experiencing a fairly large, although not at all critical, working debt load. The main creditor of the Group of Companies was Sberbank.

“Since the beginning of the 2000s, the Visma Group of Companies has repeatedly applied to Sberbank of Russia PJSC to obtain credit funds for the development of the enterprise, increase the volume and range of products manufactured and expand the dealer network” (from a statement by Valery Geryugov to the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation) from 06/08/2017). The bank willingly gave loans, and Visma carefully serviced them. By 2012, the company owed the Security Council of the Russian Federation a little more than 1.125 billion rubles under all loan agreements, which, at the initiative of the credit institution, were combined into a single agreement. At the same time, the bank, without explanation, increased the rate by 1.5 times, from 11 to 15% per annum. This was the first alarm bell, which, judging by subsequent events, was simply not heard at Visma. Or they couldn’t imagine that the other side would act as… a raider.

In total, by 2014, the amount of debt of Geryugov’s company to Sberbank reached 1.6 billion rubles. Understanding the gravity of the situation, Visma management began negotiations on debt restructuring. Let us recall that at that time many large companies were conducting similar negotiations - Igor Zyuzin’s Mechel, Mikhail Bolotin’s Tractor Plants, whose debts amounted to tens of billions of rubles. In the same list are ChTPZ, AvtoVAZ... They all found understanding. With Visma it turned out differently.

In parallel with the negotiations, Sber begins to take seemingly illogical steps. The bank sends an appeal to the arbitration court at the ANO “Independent Arbitration Chamber” in Stavropol with statements of claim for early collection of debt under loan agreements. The trial begins, negotiations, in turn, continue, and not without success. The initiative is entirely on the side of Sberbank - during 2015, employees of the Problem Debt Management Department attracted two third-party companies to evaluate the business (mentioned FBK LLC and Baker Tilly Rusaudit LLC) and sought from Geryugov to sign three memorandums.

In November 2015, the final memorandum on debt restructuring for 7 years was issued, which Geryugov signed personally in the presence of the head of this department, Maxim Degtyarev. But here follows a new wave of strangeness: despite the agreed and existing memorandum, the credit committee of Sberbank does not even consider it at its meetings! Geryugov addresses letters to German Gref on this matter (copies are available in the editorial office), but the result is the same - zero. A bad thought comes to mind that Sberbank is not going to help Geryugov’s business overcome the consequences of the crisis. Rather, on the contrary, they are doing everything to force him to give up Arkhyz. The apotheosis comes in April 2015, when Sberbank initiates the bankruptcy procedure of the Visma Group of Companies, sending more than 600 letters to the Group's business partners with an official warning about the start of the bankruptcy procedure. This raises a basic question in Roman law: cui bono, who benefits?

...If you make a request in Yandex using two words, “Sberbank” and “raider”, then the information that appears in the results will be very eloquent. “Chief raider” of the state bank of the 2011 model Ashot Khachaturyants, the Amurkabel case, in the Voronezh region (everyone talked about this, including our publication, from MK and Kommersant to the Federal News Agency, Andrei Karaulov’s program “Moment” truth") - there are a lot of stories.

Naturally, Visma’s debtors stop paying the water supplier. “There was an immediate collapse in sales - the partners got worried that we were already bankrupt,” said Andrey Ukrainsky, head of the legal department of Visma Group of Companies, at the time. “And some of our counterparties, having decided to work ahead of the bank, themselves filed an application to court.”

So who benefits?

As stated in the aforementioned statement to the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, negotiations between Visma and Sberbank were meaningless and unpromising from the beginning. The fact is that the former head of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Rostov-on-Don LLC, Ali Uzdenov, worked closely with the bank’s management for a long time - one of the key links in the plan for the raider takeover of Arkhyz.

Currently, Mr. Uzdenov holds the post of Vice President of...AFK Sistema. He came to this position in April 2016. Uzdenov is no stranger to Sistema - he worked for many years at the Rostov branch of Bashneft. By the way, it was Uzdenov who promoted the notorious Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko to Directorate “T” of the GUEBiPK. According to media reports, the “golden colonel” began to actively work out his career take-off - using threats and intimidation, he eliminated all applicants for contract contracts with PJSC Gazprom in favor of LLC NIPI NG Peton. This little-known company, controlled by Ali Uzdenov, has concluded contracts worth 100 billion rubles with Gazprom in recent years.

Arriving at the position of vice president of Bashneft, Uzdenov began vigorous activity on projects in the south of Russia. It's time to return to the quote from the TASS report, which we cited at the very beginning of the material. Here it is in full: “AFK Sistema plans to expand investment activities in the territory of Karachay-Cherkessia, where it owns the large agricultural complex Yuzhny.” This was announced today by the press service of the head and government of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic following a meeting between the head of the republic, Rashid Temrezov, and representatives of the company’s management, Felix Yevtushenkov and Ali Uzdenov. “Company representatives announced the intention of AFK Sistema to expand investment activities in the territory of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic and into other sectors of the economy. The meeting participants stated that the company is already seriously interested in the Arkhyz resort construction project...” We will return to the other meeting participants later.

As they say, it was Uzdenov who came up with the idea to “squeeze” Visma’s business in favor of Sistema. Sberbank was chosen as an ally, and the debt of Geryugov’s company became an instrument of pressure.

The suspicions of the owner of Arkhyz were confirmed literally six months later. “I turned to the head of AFK Sistema, Vladimir Petrovich Yevtushenkov, but I was redirected to his deputy Oleg Saidashovich Mubarakshin, a meeting with whom took place in October 2016,” says Geryugov’s statement dated 06/08/2017. He openly stated that Sistema is interested in this business and that by the end of 2016 the company should transfer to new owners, i.e. to AFK Sistema. Delta LLC was appointed as the company that was supposed to ensure the implementation of the plan.

A serious coalition has formed against Geryugov and Visma: AFK Sistema (at the forefront - Ali Uzdenov plus a partner in the person of Delta LLC), Sberbank of Russia (we know the names of the employees who took part in the scheme) and the leadership of Karachay-Cherkessia represented by the head of the republic, Rashid Temrezov. Usually in such situations the term provided for in Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is used - “criminal community”. It was clear that a raider takeover of such a large business in a small republic was impossible without approval and help from “above.” According to available information, at the celebration of his birthday, Rashid Temrezov publicly promised the de facto head of Delta LLC, Leonid Mayevsky and Felix Yevtushenkov, to provide any assistance in resolving issues related to gaining control over Visma Group of Companies.

How it was done

And the car spun. On October 6, 2016, Sberbank assigns under an assignment agreement in favor of Delta LLC almost the entire debt in the amount of 1,690,210,012.85 rubles. The discount with which the debt “went away” to Mayevsky’s company is amazing – 43%! Delta received it for only 968 million rubles (remember the $168 million that AFK Sistema was ready to pay earlier - a good “saving” of 1000%, isn’t it?). It is quite obvious that there was no economic feasibility in this scheme. Moreover, Sberbank suffered obvious damage.

Further, according to former employees of Visma Group of Companies, Uzdenov, using his connections, achieved the necessary decisions in arbitration courts: judges make decisions on procedural succession, and at the beginning of 2017, contrary to the current laws and the conclusions of arbitration managers, bankruptcy proceedings were introduced at the companies of the Group of Companies . Nobody was going to bankrupt Visma in strict accordance with the current legislation - otherwise they would have to sell Visma’s property at market value, which at the time of the events exceeded 6,000,000,000 rubles, deduct the amount of debt 1,725,755,174.52 rubles, and the remaining funds should be returned to the owners of Visma Group of Companies. The goal was simple: to take over a working enterprise at the lowest cost, using the courts and the bankruptcy procedure.

Through the Arbitration Court of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, the raiders manage to push through the introduction of the bankruptcy procedure. In this case, a person acting in the interests of Delta LLC is appointed as a bankruptcy trustee. Mr. Maslov I.N., the bankruptcy trustee of Visma CJSC (this is the extraction and production of drinking water), removes Valery Geryugov from management and transfers the actual management of the company to an employee of Delta LLC, Alexey Baranovsky. On April 26, 2017, the last step was taken - at a meeting of the creditors’ committee, which consisted of only 2 (!) people who did not have the right to vote, since they were secured creditors, Mr. Baranovsky was “elected” as its chairman. And a decision is made to continue production at Visma JSC. In fact, the production was hastily legalized in the interests of Delta LLC, i.e. AFK Sistema. In fact, the managing director of BGP Litigation, Alexey Nechaev, warned about the possibility of such a scenario in December 2016. “By becoming the main creditor, Delta can try to control the bankruptcy procedure with the help of a friendly bankruptcy trustee whom it can recommend,” he said.

The Delta ownership scheme is interesting. The company is owned equally by two structures, MK Capital and Law Firm Vanguard. The owner of the first one is Vladislav Leonidovich Mayevsky. This is also the name of the son of businessman Leonid Mayevsky. Vanguard Law Firm is owned by Cypriot Windrel Holdings Limited, whose owners are not disclosed, according to the Cyprus company registry. The conclusion about where the money from water produced in Russia will go (and is already going) is, in our opinion, obvious...

So, the invaders seemed to resume releasing water. But what's really going on? About 80% of the workforce was laid off, hundreds of people in Cherkessk were left without work. According to reports from the remaining workers, neither technology nor product quality control is observed at production (previously, the water was checked every half hour). And the company's property is stolen and taken away. The level of wages also fell, although the raiders called for help from the head of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, who promised the workers a bright future. In fact, with the seizure of Visma, Karachay-Cherkessia lost tens of millions of rubles in taxes and hundreds of jobs. And at the same time (and finally) the image of a region in which it is possible to conduct safe business. But Temrezov clearly didn’t think about this.

Finish off so he doesn't get up?

The story of the capture and death of “Arkhyz” would be incomplete without “werewolves in uniform.” Naturally, in such a case there must be “correct” court decisions, necessary decisions, and timely refusals. There are more than enough of them in the Visma case.

According to those close to Valery Geryugov, it was at the instigation of members of the criminal group who seized the business from the legal owners that illegal criminal prosecution was initiated against the founder of Visma. They clearly decide to finish off Geryugov.

First, a massive “black” PR campaign is launched in the information field. In December 2016, the authors of the information attack switched from fan-fiction on the websites of water distributors about how bad the founder of Visma is to a different format. Acting according to ancient methods a la the 1997 elections, they release on the Internet a “dumpster” site, created on the Internet, as PR people say, where they dump either completely contrived “compromising evidence”, or, according to the behest of Dr. Goebbels, half-truths about the Geryugov family, his friends. And of course, about himself.

Apparently, the customers of this campaign saved money on PR - the site was filled unevenly in January, April and May 2017. That is, synchronously with the beginning of forceful pressure on the businessman. It will be discussed below. The quality of the messages is low, but the trend is obvious: blame Geryugov for everything possible. It is strange that he was not credited with attempting a coup in one particular republic and was not associated with the financing of ISIS (banned in Russia) and Afghan drug trafficking. Apparently this is yet to come...

At the same time, pressure began at the hands of the security forces.

On March 31, 2017, criminal case No. 11701007754000062 was initiated on as many as 7 (!) episodes. Geryugov is charged with Part 4 of Article 159.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Very quickly, a week later, he was illegally detained and placed under house arrest. Thus, depriving them of the opportunity to protect their interests, property and business on the spot. The pressure from law enforcement is constantly growing. More than 20(!) investigators are appointed to the investigation team. On April 5-6, one-time searches are taking place in Moscow, Karachay-Cherkessia and Rostov-on-Don at the companies and apartments of Visma’s top managers. The operation involves not only a dozen investigators, but also task forces and even special forces! On April 7, 2017, Valery Geryugov was charged, “And the charge is brought in violation of two articles of the law at once - clause 4, part 2, article 171 and clause 1, part 4, article 47 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation,” says the lawyer of the legal owner of Visma , managing partner of the Law Office “Osherov, Oniskovets and Partners” Mikhail Osherov.

Let's decipher it. Article 171 states that the resolution must contain a description of the crime, indicating the time, place of its commission, as well as other circumstances to be proven. And Article 47 states that the accused has the right to know what he is accused of and to receive a copy of the decision to initiate a criminal case in which he is charged as an accused. No pre-investigation check was carried out - again in violation of the law in the form of Articles 144 and 145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

“You see,” continues Osherov, “Geryugov is accused of theft of loan funds by providing the bank with knowingly false and unreliable information. But theft is the illegal and gratuitous taking of someone else's property and turning it into one's own benefit. According to the text of the resolution, my client allegedly organized the provision of financial and economic documentation of the company, containing deliberately false and unreliable information, to employees of PJSC Sberbank of Russia. What kind of information this is, what circumstances - nothing is said about this in the resolution!”

Moreover, Osherov continues, the financial and economic documentation of the company provided to the bank, necessary to obtain a loan, was the object of detailed study by the bank’s specialists. “It has been recognized as reliable more than 10 times! This is confirmed by internal bank documentation, including the conclusion of the credit department and the minutes of the meeting of the credit committee,” he says.

In addition, Valery Geryugov is accused of creating conditions that make it impossible for the bank to collect the debt. This statement is also untrue. The value of the assets, estimated at 6 billion rubles, has always ensured the possibility of the bank foreclosure on the debtor’s property and the possibility of the Visma Group of Companies to return the borrowed funds.

There were more than enough inexplicable oddities in the Visma case. The complaint sent by lawyers to the Prosecutor General's Office on May 3, 2017 has still not received a response. In connection with this, a repeated appeal was sent on August 23. Only on July 18, 2017, a forensic accounting examination was appointed, the subject of which was business transactions on the accounts of Visma CJSC, Visma Lux LLC, Visma-Center Trading House LLC. It turns out that for 4 months (!) the investigation did not take measures to investigate the size and condition of the Visma Group of Companies’ assets, the organization’s ability to meet its obligations, and did not try to determine the amount of possible damage. That is, they did nothing to obtain fundamental data for the investigation of a criminal case. This suggests a conclusion: the case against Geryugov was opened prematurely, without any basis. Simply put, by order.

On June 8 of this year, a statement was sent to the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia about what was committed against V.A. Geryugov. crime (we referred to this statement above) by employees of Delta LLC, AFK Sistema, PJSC Sberbank of Russia, officials of the administration of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, a deputy of the State Duma, the management of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic and other unidentified persons. In response - new violations of the law by the investigation. Senior investigator Artem Ranchenkov, who, by the way, made a career in the Pussy Riot case and is suspected of involvement in the assassination attempt on lawyer Nikolai Gorokhov, wrote in response that this statement of crime will be considered ... during the investigation of criminal case No. 11701007754000062, in which he himself Geryugov has been brought in as a defendant. This decision grossly violates the requirements of the criminal procedural legislation of the Russian Federation (Articles 144-145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation), as well as the rights of Valery Geryugov and may be one of the forms of concealing a crime from accounting and registration. At the moment, the senior investigator in the case has been replaced and is L.V. Krasnova, who, according to established tradition, continues to conduct the investigation with an accusatory bias.

Another pseudo-crime that Geryugov is charged with is the withdrawal of funds under the guise of payment for services, as well as the export of finished products of the Visma Group of Companies, which are pledged, under the guise of their sale. The first is, to say the least, strange - all payments of Visma Group of Companies during the implementation of operating activities were controlled and agreed upon by employees of PJSC Sberbank of Russia, and did not violate the terms of the concluded contracts. There was no realization of the collateral.

And now, instead of the result, some numbers. Since March 2017, Valery Geryugov’s lawyers have sent 18 complaints about violations by law enforcement, judicial and supervisory structures. Addressees: the Prosecutor General's Office, the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Moscow City Court and the Tverskoy District Court. The answer was 18 refusals. Here are the names and positions of those who refused: Deputy Head of the 2nd Department of the ROPD Department of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia A.V. Shcherbakov, judges of the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow O.Yu. Zatomskaya, A.V. Krivoruchko. and Ermakova E.V., judges of the Moscow City Court Nikolenko L.I. and Fisenko E.V., Ivanova E.A.

Those who are supposed to protect business are also behaving very strangely. The appeal to the Commissioner under the President of the Russian Federation for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs, Boris Titov, dated April 19 (!) still remains without a clear answer. Apparently at someone’s request, the Center for Public Procedures “Business Against Corruption” is also slowing down its work. The conclusion on the documents submitted on the same day about the illegal persecution of the head of Visma is also not ready.

And there is clearly a veil of informational silence hanging over the Visma case. Judge for yourself - on August 29, at the insistence of investigator L.V. Krasnova, the court extended the entrepreneur’s house arrest for another 3 months. And again we see typical symptoms of an information war - even the ubiquitous legal information portal Pravo.ru did not report this! Yes, it gives 10 links for the query “Geryugov”. But there is no information about the extension of house arrest. Is this not important at all? Or did someone order the topic to be “closed”? It looks a lot like that.

But questions remain. Why don’t even supposedly independent media write about Geryugov’s case? Why are all the commissioners and business protection organizations silent? Why are specialized food industry associations silent? What is the position of Mr. Tkachev’s department? Where are the deputies and parties who, at least out of selfish interest, could “work” with the topic? Where are the representatives of the administration of the North Caucasian Federal District - after all, we are not talking about the fate of the stall, but about something serious on a national scale, not only in the 09th region, business, the fate of thousands of people? About trust in the authorities, finally, and about the distrust of normal foreign investors who could come to us, despite all sorts of sanctions, but now, seeing how the main bank of Russia (state-owned, at that) together with the recent “enemy of the state” is engaged in raiding, definitely come here won't they come? Doesn't anyone think about this? Or don’t you care at all anymore? Including the instructions of the President?

We will monitor developments around Visma Group of Companies

This is stated in the file of arbitration cases.

The day before, the Arbitration Court of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic terminated the bankruptcy proceedings of Valery Geryugov, the owner of the Visma group of companies, which produces Arkhyz mineral water.

From the materials of case No. A25-1166/2016 it follows that the bankruptcy procedure was launched by Sberbank. The corresponding statement of claim was submitted to the court in May last year.

It turns out that the cause of the dispute was the loan. In 2012, the bank provided Visma with several loans at once, but the company did not fulfill its obligations under the agreement. As a result, a debt of 1.8 billion rubles arose. It is known that the company’s founder, Valery Geryugov, acted as a guarantor for the loans.

Earlier, we would like to remind you that the court suspended the proceedings in this case. In September last year, Sberbank's complaint against this decision was rejected. The cassation subsequently overturned the decision of the appellate instance and sent the case for a new trial. However, on January 11, the Arbitration Court of Karachay-Cherkessia again issued a decision to terminate the proceedings.

FOR REFERENCE

Circassian businessman Valery Geryugov created the Visma company in 1993. It includes three factories in a specially protected ecological resort zone of the North Caucasus. "Visma" is the copyright holder of several trademarks, including "Arkhyz" (its share accounts for up to 80% of the holding's total sales), "Essentuki", "Smirnovskaya", "Vera in a Natural Source", Mega Vita and "Zhivitsa" "

Valery Geryugov, whose structures produced the famous Arkhyz mineral water, was charged in a criminal case of fraud totaling about 2 billion.

As Kommersant learned, the investigative department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs completed the investigation and brought final charges against the former beneficiary of the Visma group of companies, Valery Geryugov, whose structures produced Arkhyz mineral water. Together with him in the criminal case of fraudulent theft of Sberbank funds received in the form of loans totaling about 2 billion rubles are two former top managers of Visma, one of whom is wanted.

According to Kommersant's information, on Tuesday evening, at the premises of the investigation department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on Gazetny Lane, investigators filed a final charge against Valery Geryugov with fraud in the field of lending on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 159.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), for which up to ten years of imprisonment. In addition to him, investigators also brought a similar charge against two former executive directors of the enterprise, Lyuaze Doroshenko and Ulan Borlakov. It should be noted that the businesswoman is under recognizance not to leave. Meanwhile, Mr. Borlakov managed to hide from the investigation, was put on the federal wanted list, and therefore was charged in absentia.

According to investigators, in 2012–2014, Valery Geryugov, with the help of his top managers and certain “unidentified persons,” received loans from Sberbank totaling 1.8 billion rubles. to replenish working capital and purchase new equipment. Initially, loan payments were made, but at the end of 2014, borrowers stopped servicing their debt. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, soon after this, the borrowers, as well as their guarantors, who were part of the Visma group, began bankruptcy proceedings. Since the bankruptcy initiators were firms allegedly controlled by Valery Geryugov, this made it possible to appoint “friendly” temporary managers, take advantage of the situation, delaying the monitoring procedure for more than a year and a half, and during this time withdraw the main production facilities and assets of Visma. In particular, during searches on the territory of the Sofia Glacier company, allegedly affiliated with Valery Geryugov, the main production equipment of Visma was discovered, which was pledged to Sberbank PJSC, which was removed from the enterprise. At the same time, according to investigators, the loans themselves from Sberbank were obtained “using distorted financial statements,” and then huge sums were simply stolen through fictitious transactions and shell companies. It should be noted that Valery Geryugov is well known as a major businessman who began trading back in the 1980s after his dismissal from the Soviet army. He tried different branches of production, but his main and favorite brainchild was mineral water - at first it was about “Essentuki” and “Narzan”, but then the main brand became “Arkhyz”, named after the location of the high-mountain spring and quickly gained popularity among buyers.

Some time ago, Sberbank managers wrote a statement to law enforcement agencies about the fraudulent theft of their loan funds - about 1.8 billion rubles. In April last year, Valery Geryugov was detained in Moscow by operatives of the GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs, a case was opened against him, and with the sanction of the court he was placed under house arrest.

Valery Geryugov's lawyer Mikhail Osherov confirmed to Kommersant that the final version of the charges had been filed. He emphasized that his client still does not admit his guilt. “We don’t really understand how the investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs could bring charges when the financial and analytical examination appointed by the investigator himself has not yet been completed,” said Mr. Osherov. He also noted that in the final version, the number of criminal episodes charged against his client was reduced from seven to three, although the amount of damage itself remained the same. “Valery Aslanbekovich (Geryugov - Kommersant) is confident in his innocence, he himself wrote statements about crimes committed against him several times - both to investigators and to business ombudsman Boris Titov, but have not yet received answers from anywhere,” - explained Mikhail Osherov. With reference to his client, he reported his version of what happened: a criminal case was artificially opened against the businessman, which was necessary only to take away his main assets - Visma CJSC, where he was listed as both a co-owner and general director. In any case, after his removal and arrest, production of Arkhyz was resumed, but by other entrepreneurs who bought out Visma’s debts from Sberbank. The bank, which was recognized as a victim in the criminal case, was unable to promptly provide comments.

The squad of personal bankrupts in Russia has been replenished with another well-known business person. She became Valery Geryugov, the beneficiary of the Visma group, which bottles water under the Arkhyz and Essentuki brands. Sberbank, to which the businessman owes 1.8 billion rubles, demands that the mineral magnate’s fortune be thrown into the wind. At the same time, in the ranking of the largest producers of mineral water, Visma ranks fourth with a market share of about 3.5%. Experts say that fatal management mistakes led to the collapse of the business.

"I'm great. This is a business, it is striped: there is a white stripe, there is a dark one. I don’t see any point in being upset about this.” Valery Geryugov talks philosophically about the collapse of his mineral empire. The only beneficiary of the Visma group of companies does not seem to be on the verge of bankruptcy and is not listed among the malicious defaulters of Sberbank, to which it owes 1.8 billion rubles. By the way, the guarantor for this debt is Geryugov personally, i.e. in the event of the collapse of the empire, he himself will be stripped dry.

In general, they say about Valery Geryugov that he is a person “with quirks.” The 53-year-old owner of a business with a billion-dollar turnover, who once flooded the whole of Russia with his mountain mineral water, lives not in some fashionable area of ​​​​Moscow, but in his hometown of Cherkessk, occupies a spacious, but by no means luxurious house, and every day goes to work.

In total, the company of the “modest” North Caucasian tycoon owes 2 billion rubles. The Arkhyz brand, like the production assets of the Visma group, is pledged to Sberbank; enterprises are recording a landslide decline in sales of mineral water, Kommersant reports.

“Our sales have decreased because so many people have gone abroad for permanent residence. These were just our clients,” - explains Geryugov in his ironic manner. This is hard to believe. Experts note: the group was driven to bankruptcy by personnel leapfrogs and several important managerial miscalculations, and not by a group of Arkhyz fans who suddenly changed their tastes and now quench their thirst with water from another manufacturer.

From pasta to mineral water

Geryugov, in his own words, came into business in the early 90s. He “took the initial capital in his pocket”: after leaving the army in the late 1980s, the former tanker first traded “everything that was traded”, and then decided to go into manufacturing. Together with his brother in his native Cherkessk, he opened the Visma company, producing pasta, polyethylene... Soon the idea of ​​bottling Fructi's lemonade appeared. However, at the beginning of the 2000s, the creator of the favorite drink, Lemonade Joe, began to be confidently squeezed out by other producers of "fizzy drink". Therefore, after for soda, mineral water "Essentuki" and "Narzan" appeared on the market. Geryugov made the main bet on them. But he chose the brands poorly: "Essentuki" was then bottled by dozens of other companies. The name was devoid of originality. "Narzan" even brought the businessman to court . This brand belonged to another entrepreneur, Vladimir Borodavkin, who did not want to share the glory of the Karachay-Cherkess spring with anyone. Geryugov had to start looking for a new brand. The source was found in the village of Arkhyz, which translated into Russian means “beautiful girl.” However, he won love There were no immediate buyers for the new mineral water.

At first, Visma supplied water to the southern regions of Russia, but there it had to compete with a strong local producer - the Pilgrim, Birba brands, and Mercury manufacturers. Things began to improve when Arkhyz entered the Moscow market: despite the fact that there were no fewer competitors, consumer demand also turned out to be extremely high. Armen Dzhigarkhanyan helped the population to get used to drinking the “life-giving and amazingly tasty” mineral water, or rather, an advertising video with him in the leading role, for which Geryugov paid 300 thousand dollars. In it, the eminent actor brewed tea with Arkhyz and told how useful the iodine contained in water is. The advertising worked: the company's sales more than doubled: in 2003, Visma's turnover amounted to almost 300 million rubles compared to 124 million a year earlier.

On this topic

By 2006, Geryugov’s small company had grown to the scale of an empire. Visma entered the top ten largest producers in the Russian water market, controlling a share of 3.7%. Three plants in Arkhyz, Cherkessk and Pyatigorsk produced 1.35 million liters of water per day. Two years later, the company almost doubled its capacity.

At that time, Arkhyz, although considered the sales locomotive, providing 90% of the turnover, was no longer the only promoted brand of Visma. On the shelves there were also bottles of water “Arkhyzik”, “Slavyanovskaya”, drinks with the taste of berries and fruits “Vitalina”, energy drinks Mega Vita and more.

The money source has dried up

Visma's problems are the consequences of the crisis, says Dmitry Petrov, president of the Union of Soft Drinks and Mineral Water Producers. The volume of drinking and mineral water in 2015 amounted to 5.6 billion liters - a decrease of 5.8%.

“The Russian consumer for the most part did not particularly favor bottled drinking water before, and during the crisis they began to favor it even less,” - says Petrov. According to him, the entire drinking and mineral water market, if it is not operating at a loss, is on the verge of profitability.

However, it would be a mistake to attribute all the troubles of Visma only to the turbulence of the Russian economy, says the same Dmitry Petrov. Arkhyz’s money began to evaporate a little earlier. At first, the KvasCo Bottlers company, which bottles Pershin kvass, tried to bankrupt Geryugov and sued him for 54.2 million rubles. Afterwards I settled in Sberbank. The management of the credit institution demands that Valery Geryugov be declared bankrupt, because he acted as a guarantor for loans issued to group companies in 2012. Sberbank sent a corresponding statement at the end of May to the Arbitration Court of Karachay-Cherkessia,

According to bankers, Visma was mired in loans, which it took out for technical re-equipment of factories and replenishment of working capital. The company was in no hurry to pay off its debts. Payments stopped in 2014.

Geryugov explains all the troubles of his group simply - the consumer cheated on him. So, in 2014, sales of Arkhyz fell by as much as 40%.

However, according to Money, the reason lies elsewhere. When the crisis occurred, Visma, which operated in the upper middle price segment, decided to take a risky step: to reposition its products and make them much more expensive. The logic was this: set the price that imported water had before the crisis, for example, 60-70 rubles. instead of the previous 33-37 rubles. for a one and a half liter bottle. The calculation would be that the consumer will refuse imported mineral water, which has significantly increased in price, and will pay more attention to Arkhyz, even if it has also become more expensive. This, according to Money, was the fatal mistake - some retailers simply refused the “beautiful girl”. Nobody wanted to pay that kind of money for water, even with “natural power”. In 2015, Visma chose to return it and returned the previous price. This did not help revive the business. Market share was irretrievably lost: Nielsen estimates its sales fell by 40% in two years.

Many experts also see Geryugov’s miscalculation in vague advertising support. Water, sold at a premium price, did not seem like an “elite” drink to consumers. The PR people were not convinced of this.

Poor management is another aspect that contributed to the collapse. According to Kommersant, Valery Geryugov changed managers like gloves - he demanded quick results from managers, and when this did not work, he parted with people.

The geographical factor also had a negative impact on the business: Visma is quite remote from Moscow and the Central Federal District, so its logistics costs reach up to 30% of the cost of products. All this together has led to the fact that Arkhyz is gradually disappearing from store shelves.