Arnest Packaging Solutions to build aluminum can plant in Uzbekistan

MOSCOW. Oct 15 (Interfax) - Arnest Packaging Solutions, a division of Russia's Arnest Group, has signed an investment agreement with the Uzbek government to build a plant to manufacture aluminum beverage cans.

Investment in the project will total about $100 million, the company said in a press release. The plant, which is scheduled to open next fall, will have capacity to produce over 1.5 billion cans per year and will create more than 200 new jobs.

"Localizing production in Uzbekistan will significantly strengthen the company's presence on export markets in EAEU countries, Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as make it possible to free up export volumes made in Russia and redirect them to meet the demand of the Russian market," company CEO Alexander Isayev was quoted as saying in the press release.

The plant is expected to export about 30% of its output.

Arnest Packaging Solutions, the leading manufacturer of aluminum beverage packaging in Russia, has four aluminum can plants and one lid plant, located in Moscow, Leningrad, Chelyabinsk and Ulyanovsk regions. The company has been part of Arnest Group, one of Russia's largest producers of household aerosols, since the fall of 2022, when the group bought the Russian aluminum can business of U.S. company Ball Corporation.

In August 2023, Arnest Group bought the Russian business of Dutch brewing giant Heineken, which included seven breweries. The price of the deal was 1 euro for 100% of shares, Heineken said at the time. But Arnest Group president Alexei Sagal told RBC later that the beer business cost the company 11.5 billion-12 billion rubles, which is what the Russian division owed the Dutch parent company.