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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fozzy Group, LLC is one of the largest trade and industrial groups in Ukraine, based in Kyiv, and one of the leading Ukrainian retailers with more than 700 outlets all around the country. In addition to retail, group of companies has business interests in food manufacturing, banking, IT, logistics and restaurants.[5][6][7]
| |
| Fozzy Group | |
Native name | Фоззі Груп |
Romanized name | Fozzi Hrup |
| Company type | Privately held company |
| Industry | Retail supermarkets, stores and restaurants. Food production and canning |
| Founded | 1997[1] |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Ms. Nadiya Bondareva, CEO; Volodymyr Kostelman, President [1][2] |
| Products | Canned foods, sausage, poultry, portable toilets |
| Services | Food retailing, food processing, food export, catering [1][3] |
Number of employees | Over 30,000 [4] |
| Divisions | Fozzy Agro Fozzy Logistic |
| Website | fozzy |
The company has had operations in Ukraine since 1997, and operates the flagship chain of Silpo supermarkets and Le Silpo premium format delicatessen stores, Fozzy Cash & Carry wholesale hypermarkets, Fora convenience stores, Thrash! grocery stores,[8] FOODpod minimarkets, Sniatynska ptytsia fresh meat shops, Bila Romashka pharmaceutical supermarkets and Bud Zdorovyi drugstores, E-ZOO pet stores, commercial bank Vostok and neobank BVR, sports clubs and medical centers, online marketplaces and web portals, courier services, food factories and restaurants U Khromogo Pola, Staromak, U Golema, La Bodeguita del Medio, Divan.[9][10]
The flagship private label of Fozzy Group — Premiya is sold in most of the retail chains of the group of companies, and its widest range is presented in the Silpo chain, which was first introduced in December 2006.[11] It includes the widest assortment, which increased from 87 product lines in 2006 to 520 product names in 72 categories in 2008,[12] which includes cream cheese, sandwiches and greens in cans, and certified organic sturgeon roe is distributed under its own label Premiya Select. The group of companies also owns smaller labels Povna Chasha, Povna Charka, Protex.[13]
Fozzy Group also imports wines into Ukraine from 34 wine producers (as of May 2011), including brands from Italy, Germany, Hungary, France, Italy, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, and South Africa.[14]
The group of companies has its own logistics, which includes 4 centers in Ukraine: in Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa and Kharkiv. The needs of the group are served by 562 trucks. The main fleet is located in the village. Trebukhiv, Brovary district, Kyiv region, where the main office and service station (2,500 m2) are also located.[29]
In February 2018, the group of companies renewed its fleet by purchasing 40 Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks worth € 5.2 million.[30] In July 2018, the company bought the Post.ua courier service, founded by Vitaliy Yanitsky. Based on it, Fozzy Group began to develop its own delivery operator B2C Justin,[31] which stopped working in the spring of 2022.[32]
Fozzy Group exports its canned food products internationally, including to North America, Eastern Europe and Asia. Additional industrial lines owned and operated by the company are a meat-processing plant named Ruta LLC that produces manufactured meat and sausages, and a company named Eco-service Ukraine LLC involved in the commerce and servicing of portable toilets.[4] In addition, Fozzy Group acquired the Friedrich Engels Confectionery Factory and the Malinsky meat processing plant in 2003, the Vozzelsky bread processing plant in 2014, the vegetable breeding company Agro-Alliance Zakarpattia in 2015, the agricultural company "Belarus" in 2018, and the agricultural firm "Orshevska" in 2020.[28]
In February 2003, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office announced that several cases involving tax evasion, counterfeit vodka and illegal equipment sales had been opened against Fozzy Group.[51] Additionally, accusations were made by the Prosecutor General's Office that Fozzy Group engaged in illegal money laundering.[51] At the time, Volodymyr Kostelman, President of the company, stated that the Prosecutor General's Office findings regarding tax evasion were based upon incorrect figures, and that Fozzy Group had not engaged in any illegal activities.[51] It was also reported at the time that Kostelman "hinted that his company was framed by tax officials and that Ukrainian businesses are currently not safe from corruption."[51]
In May 2016, the Solomyansky District Court of Kyiv seized the accounts of Fozzy-Food, LLC due to understatement of value added tax by officials. The investigation established that officials of Fozzy-Food, LLC, while conducting financial and economic relations with a number of companies by conducting non-goods transactions, understated VAT in January-February 2015 by the amount of 32.2 million hryvnias. The offense was recorded in the act of an unscheduled on-site inspection of the Fiscal Service in November 2015. During the inspection, inconsistency of the purchased and sold goods, non-confirmation of the reality of financial and economic transactions, and the absence of the possibility of fulfilling contractual relations were revealed. It was established that Fozzy-Food, LLC has accounts in Joint Bank Pivdenny PJSC and Bank Vostok PJSC, on which, in order to stop criminal activity and to further compensate the losses caused to the state, a seizure was imposed on them and it was forbidden to dispose of funds and it was ruled to stop spending transactions with the funds coming into the accounts.[52]
On July 12, 2016, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv decided to seize the accounts of Fozzy-Food, LLC to ensure the fulfillment of its obligations to VTB-Bank PJSC[c] under the 2007 credit agreement, under which the total amount owed by the retailer to the bank is ₴302.48 million. With this decision, the court partially satisfied the bank's claim and ordered the seizure of funds on any Fozzy-Food accounts in the amount of ₴239.13 million. In addition, the Kyiv Commercial Court of Appeal, by its decision dated July 19, 2016, also partially satisfied the claim of VTB Bank, imposing a seizure on Fozzy-Food funds in Bank Vostok PJSC accounts in the amount of ₴64.8 million.[53]
On August 2, 2016, the Court of Appeal of Kyiv overturned the decision of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv to impose seizures on the accounts of Fozzy-Food, LLC, a structural unit of the Fozzy Group registered in December 2002, which had been engaged in the operational activities of the Silpo supermarket chain in Ukraine since August 2003.[54]
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