Avon breaks new ground in Russia

Door-to-door cosmetics giant Avon digs deeper into Russian beauty market with a hefty $40 million (€35m) investment in production facilities, helping to hit the company's $500 million Russian sales target for 2007.

The US company began direct selling in Russia in 1995 in the Moscow region, and since then operations have expanded throughout European Russia, Ural and Western Siberia. In 2002 the company's sales in Russia were $142 million, up from $22 million in 1999.

The new 250,000 square-foot (76000m2) plant near Narofominsk in the Moscow region - expected to begin operations in mid-2004 - will employ more than 800 workers and produce 185 million units of cosmetics products, including creams, lotions, mascara, roll-on deodorants and fragrance colognes.

Products manufactured at the new plant will be sold in Russia through the country's 194,000 sales representatives, as well as in Avon's markets in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

"The facility will leverage the cost and efficiency benefits of a more localised supply chain, and help strengthen our competitive advantage in this high potential market,"​ said Susan J. Kropf, president and chief operating officer of Avon​.