5 Aug 2022 10:17

Valio to produce Oltermanni cheese under Laplandia brand

MOSCOW. Aug 5 (Interfax) - Valio LLC, which was acquired by Russia's Velkom Group in late April after Finland's Valio left the Russian market, has announced it is rebranding its semi-hard cheeses.

The line of cheeses that Russian consumers have known as Oltermanni for the past 25 years will now be produced under the Laplandia brand, the company said. The new name reflects all the strengths of the traditional product, and the overall design of the product's packaging will remain recognizable and keep its usual yellow and brown colors, the company said.

Semi-hard cheeses under the new Laplandia brand will appear on Russian store shelves in the middle of the fall.

The rebranding is due to the change in Valio LLC's ownership, the company said.

It was reported earlier that Velkom Group acquisition of Valio's Russian business included the company's processed and semi-hard cheese plant in Yershovo, Moscow Region, and the rights to the Viola processed cheese brand. The Finnish company decided to stop working in Russia on March 7, 2022.

Valio LLC closed 2021 with net profit up 29.3% to 320.5 million rubles on revenue up 8.8% to 8.1 billion rubles, the SPARK-Interfax analytics system showed.

Velkom, founded in 1992, is one of the largest producers of meat products, primarily sausage products, in Russia's Central Federal District. The company opened the Pavlovskaya Sloboda meat processing plant in the Istrinsky district of Moscow Region in September 2004.

The company's net profit tumbled to 220.6 million rubles in 2021 from 442 million rubles a year earlier, while revenue grew to 7.293 billion rubles from 6.936 billion rubles, the SPARK-Interfax system showed.