Atria Russia’s new factory started up in Gorelovo

The new plant is owned by the Finnish Atria Group, which has two meat processing companies in Russia, OOO Pit-Product and OOO Campomos. Pit-Product operates mainly in St. Petersburg and Campomos in Moscow. The Group operates in Russia under the name Atria Russia.

The new production plant consists of two parts, the actual meat product plant and a logistics centre. The total area of the plant is approximately 22,000 square metres. The logistics centre has been in operation already since the autumn of 2008, and its services are also used by another Atria Russia plant situated in Sinyavino, about 45 kilometres away from St. Petersburg. Atria Russia has invested approximately 70 million euros in the Gorelovo production plant, which has the most modern technology of all the meat processing plants in Russia. The new plant is going to double Atria Russia's production capacity in the St. Petersburg region.

'As well as increasing production capacity, the new factory will ensure that our products are safer and more consistent in quality, since production is automated. The efficient logistics centre and our own transportation resources will ensure growth in both St. Petersburg and Moscow,' says Juha Ruohola, Executive Vice President of Atria Russia business area.

According to Mr Ruohola, the new meat product plant will also more clearly distinguish the roles of the two St. Petersburg plants. The main products of the Gorelovo plant are frankfurters and grill sausages, and Sinyavino concentrates especially on the production of cured sausages, such as salami and mettwurst.

Atria Russia markets its products with two main product brands, Pit-Product and CampoMos. Pit-Product is the main brand in the St. Petersburg area and CampoMos is a national brand with the strongest foothold in Moscow.

The number of staff at the Gorelovo plant is approximately 200. The heart of the 17,000-square-metre plant is a fully automated, 240-metre-long frankfurter production line. The line includes a metal detector, which for its part ensures the safety of the meat.

Last year, Atria Russia's turnover was EUR 113 million, and it employed around 2,000 people

The largest foreign company in Russia

The Finnish Atria Group, the owner of OOO Pit-Product and OOO Campomos, is the largest foreign meat processing company in Russia. The company established itself on the Russian market in 2005 when it purchased Pit-Product, which operated mainly in the market of the St. Petersburg region. The company expanded to the Moscow region in 2008 when it purchased Campomos.

Atria Group, which in Russia operates under the name Atria Russia, has continued to make consistent investments in the Russian market. At the end of last year Atria Russia made a partner contract by which it obtained a 26 per cent share of the Russian, Danish-owned OOO Dan Invest company. The company owns two pig farms, which will start production this year. The pig farms are situated in Krasnodar and Tambov. The total amount of the investment is approximately 40 million euros, aiming at 180,000 pigs reared for slaughter annually by 2013. Atria Russia already had a pig farm in the Moscow region before this investment. The combined production of all three pig farms is about 235,000 slaughter pigs per year, rendering Atria Russia nearly self-sufficient in its supply of pork. The company is thus able to ensure the production of high-quality domestic pork to its continually growing Russian customership.

Atria Russia's parent company Atria Plc, quoted on Nasdaq OMX Helsinki Ltd, is a rapidly growing and internationalising company. It is the largest company in the industry in Finland and one of the leading companies elsewhere in Scandinavia, the Baltic countries and Russia. In 2009, the company's turnover was 1,316 million and its staff numbered approximately 6,200. The company was originally founded 107 years ago, in 1903.

For more information, please contact:

Atria Russia: Juha Ruohola, Executive Vice President, tel. +358 400 647160, juha.ruohola@atria.fi

Atria Group: Matti Tikkakoski, President and CEO, tel. +358 50 2582, matti.tikkakoski@atria.fi

Pit-Product & Campomos: Sergey Ivanchenko, President and CEO, tel. +7 812 33 66888, sergey.ivanchenko@pitproduct.ru