Companies@UA: База компаний Украины

Moscow, July 17 (Interfax) - OJSC Unimilk, one of Russia's leading dairy producers, increased IFRS sales revenue by 8.6% in the first quarter to 10.36 billion rubles, the company said in its financial reporting.

Total sales in natural terms increased by 1.5% to 304,100 tonnes.

Unimilk's gross profit increased by 75.4% year-on-year to 2.9 billion rubles. The company's gross margin increased to 28.2% from 17.4% posted a year earlier.

The company's EBITDA went up over 400% year-on-year to 1.3 billion rubles while the EBITDA margin went up from 3% to 12.6%.

The company said that the increase in its margin was the result of successful optimization of its brand portfolio, largely regarding the promotion of the Prostokvashino brand. Sales for this brand now account for 40% of revenue.

However, analysts at Raiffeisenbank believe that the driver behind this growth was also the decrease in the prices for dairy materials, down 15%-20% year-on-year, while retail prices for the company's production remained largely unchanged.

Unimilk currently unites 32 dairy enterprises in Russia and Ukraine. Unimilk includes Petmol in St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk's Milko, Samaralakto and Lipetsk-Moloko.

The company produces products under the brands Bio Balance, Prostokvashino, Letny Den, and others.