Coca-Cola said Thursday it would close two of its four juice plants in Russia to optimize capacity in a shrinking market.
The company will close two plants run by its Nidan unit on June 1 and transfer some of their capacity to the other juice unit, Multon, before the year-end, spokesman Vladimir Kravtsov said.
The plants being closed are located in Novosibirsk in Siberia and in the Moscow region.
"The juice market fell by 5 percent last year and the performance of Nidan was worse than the market," said Kravtsov, adding the company had been considering the move for some time and made the closure decision last year.
Coca-Cola bought Nidan, then the fourth-biggest juice maker in Russia, in 2010 for $276 million. Multon, which it acquired in 2005, has two plants with a combined production capacity of more than 790 million liters a year.
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