The United Tea Company is not new to the market. Today it produces tea under the brands Eastford, Berryford, Kama Sutra, Green Standard, and also packs products for the food retailer’s own brands. Therefore, the purchase of Ekaterra’s assets can significantly strengthen the company’s position.
At the same time, the ultimate beneficiaries of United Tea Corporation LLC are people who are far from the food business. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, 50% of the tea corporation belongs to Alexander Konov, and another 25% each belongs to the spouses Alexander and Larisa Pronin.
Alexander Pronin gained fame after he failed to complete a project to create a car dealership network for AvtoVAZ. Mr. Pronin served as president of OAO Lada-Service, which in those years was part of the structure of the auto giant. Pronin was instructed to implement a project to create the most extensive network of dealer centers in the country, but instead he suggested that AvtoVAZ management conduct an additional issue of 1.5–3 billion rubles. After failing to hit the big jackpot, Pronin left AvtoVAZ, citing a lack of funding. Subsequently, Alexander Pronin decided to try his hand at the agricultural business, declaring his desire to invest in a pig-breeding complex in the Saratov region. It is noteworthy that in 2012 Pronin’s name (at that time he already held the position of the general director of Luzhniki OJSC) surfaced in the regional press in conjunction with the Bio-Ton agricultural holding, which, in addition to the pig farm, was also interested in acquiring the Saratov bakery. The head of this company is businessman Eduard Zernin. With Mr. Zernin, Alexander Pronin is connected by common workdays even at AvtoVAZ. From 2006 to 2007, Zernin served as General Director of the Corporate Center of OAO AvtoVAZ.
In the public field, Mr. Mikhalkov never positions himself as a businessman, although, according to media reports, he is the founder of at least 22 legal entities.
As for another co-owner and general director of the United Tea Company, Alexander Konov, he is the president of the Pyotr Konchalovsky Foundation, the founder of which is the famous director Nikita Mikhalkov. In this connection, a version arises that Mr. Konov can only act as a frontman, covering up the real owner. In the public field, Mr. Mikhalkov never positions himself as a businessman, although, according to media reports, he is the founder of at least 22 legal entities. Some of the companies clearly controlled by Mikhalkov have very generous government contracts. Thus, the story associated with the Tyomino Group of Companies operating in the logging market received wide publicity. A couple of years ago, on YouTube, an investigative video scored millions of views, the authors of which accused Nikita Mikhalkov of barbaric deforestation.
Even before the “forest scandal”, Mikhalkov’s name also often flashed in the media in connection with the published information about his income. Then information was revealed not only that Mikhalkov managed to earn more than half a billion rubles in a year – information became public, according to which the director is the owner of 89 land plots and more than a dozen houses and apartments.