Issue 6 2019

50 Acquisition International - Issue 6 2019 Mar19032 Raise a Glass to Success Amber Beverage Group is one of the leading international beverage companies based in Luxemburg. Recently, the firm’s CFO, Jekaterina Stuge found success in AI’s Global Excellence Awards 2019 where she was selected as the Recognised Leader in Alcoholic Beverage Distribution 2019 – Baltic & Most Influential Female CFO 2019 – Latvia. On the back of this win, we profile Jekaterina and Amber Beverage Group to discover more about how they have established themselves as leaders in their respected industry. ased in Luxemburg, Amber Beverage Group (ABG) unites more than 2100 employees in 16 companies from the Baltics to Mexico, including the leading producers of alcoholic beverages in Latvia, Mexico and Russia, experienced distribution companies in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the UK, Russia, Australia, as well as specialized retail chains of around 70 shops operating in Latvia and Lithuania and logistics services across the Baltic States. Exporting to over 175 global markets, ABG offers warehousing space in the Baltics, as well as owning over 130 beverage brands across most spirits and wine categories. Alongside this, ABG also produces, bottles, markets, distributes, exports and retails a comprehensive range of spirits and wines, and are also proud distributors across the Baltics on behalf of well-known companies such as William Grant & Sons, Beam Suntory, Brown Forman, Red Bull and many others. Many well-known ABG’s brands includes one of the oldest Russian vodkas Moskovskaya Vodka ® , the business card of Latvia – legendary bitter, Riga Black Balsam ® which roots started way back in 1752 and many others. Leading the firm to success is CFO, Jekaterina Stuge who joined SPI Group as the CFO of Baltic Units, prior to the creation of ABG, and one of the first projects where Jekaterina was involved was creation of the unified Baltic holding company. In addition to this impressive accomplishment, Jekaterina was also part of the Management team leading several local and international acquisitions that helped ABG to become the Baltic market leader, as well as establish strong international presence. The most significant M&A transactions in recent years include acquisition of the major stake of Fabrica de Tequilas Finos in Mexico, Cellar Trends (UK), Think Spirit (Australia), Talvis (Russia), and Permalko (Russia). Jekaterina leads numerous projects to help companies learn all the processes within Amber Beverage Group by investing in next level technologies, like Robotics solutions using Kryon systems. It is a required next step in development that will help to robotise all standard routine works and free up employee time for Intelligence analysis. At this moment in time, within six months Amber Beverage Group will have robotised about 60 processes that will hopefully have had incredible implementation success. In addition to this, the firm have also begun work to implement Blockchain solutions for supply chains. This is because both tracking and immutability of data on blockchain can help to verify products origin and responsible suppliers from ingredients preparation to retailer shelves. B Looking ahead to what the future holds, the team at Amber Beverage Group will continue to deliver an exceptional service which has seen them accumulate an impressive portfolio over the years. Lastly, Jekaterina hopes to build upon the remarkable accomplishments she has achieved, which includes her recent win in Acquisition Intl.’s Global Excellence Awards where she was righteously selected as the Recognised Leader in Alcoholic Beverage Distribution 2019 - Baltic & Most Influential Female CFO 2019 – Latvia. Company: Amber Beverage Group Web Address: www.amberbev.com