DIANA Pet Food opens first plant in Russia

DIANA Pet Food, member of the Symrise Group, officially opened its first Russian plant on May 27, 2015.

Russia is the sixth site in Europe and the 17th worldwide for the company.

“Serving regional markets with local production sites is a long-standing strategy at DIANA Pet Food. The benefits of shorter distances are quite obvious combining a closer proximity to the markets, the customers and the raw materials,” said Rémi Cristoforetti, DIANA Pet Food president.

“The Russian pet food market represents 9% of the European market and is one of the fastest growing in the world. With this new production site in Shebekino, we are developing a closer relationship with our customers in Eastern Europe,” said Andrey Buynevich, who was named the general manager of the Russian plant at the beginning of this year.

DIANA Pet Food’s decision to set up a facility producing palatability enhancers for dogs and cat food in Russia was made in 2010. As the center of pig and poultry farming, the Belgorod region, 700 kilometers south of Moscow, was the ideal location for the Russian subsidiary. From due diligence of the land plot, design of the plant and construction, the setting up took four years before the first tons of palatants were shipped on November 2014.

High quality has always been one of DIANA Pet Food’s recipes for success. Just like at the other sites, the aim is to establish a Program of Excellence in Palatant Safety at the Russian plant. Andrey Buynevich, with his team of 15, will be responsible for ensuring that pet food manufacturers throughout Russia have better and faster access to DIANA Pet Food products and services.