The group "White Bird" (the fourth producer of broiler meat in Russia), whose main assets are in the Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions, plans to cut 1,3 thousand people and freeze the work of enterprises in the Rostov region. According to the founder of the "White Bird" Igor Barschuk, the main complexities of the group in the Rostov region could be mistakes of top management and unsatisfactory condition of the assets acquired there from the "Optifood" Group. In the Belgorod and Kursk regions the company operates in the same mode.

On the beginning of a massive reduction of staff at the "White Bird", the Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Rostov Region Konstantin Rachalovsky said at a meeting of the commission for social and economic development of the region on July 25. This was told to Kommersant in the regional ministry. According to Mr. Rachalovsky, "White Bird" continues to reduce the production of eggs and is negotiating with banks on solving financial problems. Preservation of production should become a forced measure to prevent the formation of wage arrears. Until October 2018, about 1.3 thousand people are expected to be reduced, of which about 1 thousand are in the Semikarakorsk district. There at the "White Bird" is, in particular, a large Semikarakorsk meat-processing plant (6 thousand heads per hour). In the group itself, the situation is not publicly commented, yesterday they did not respond to a request from Kommersant.

In 2014, "White Bird" bought the debt of the bankrupt Optifood holding before Rosselkhozbank in the amount of over 8 billion rubles, and in 2015 restarted production. The company intended for 6 billion rubles. create on the basis of the assets of Optifood poultry production of the full cycle. This money was supposed to be invested in the acquisition of 50,000 hectares of land, the construction of a feed mill from scratch (300,000 tons per year) and a slaughterhouse for 12,000 heads per hour. In the "White Bird" were going to go to the Rostov region to a capacity of 138 thousand tons per year. However, the company experiencing a shortage of hatching eggs on the Belgorod and Kursk sites, decided to reorient enterprises to produce this type of product. This would allow not only to close the group's own needs, but also to sell about 20% of the incubation egg on the scarce Russian market.

The founder of the "White Bird" Igor Barshchuk, who initiated the development of the group in the Rostov region, yesterday, in an interview with "Kommersant", explained the problems that the company faced in the region with mistakes in top management and the unsatisfactory state of a number of acquired assets. "The entrance to the Rostov region was very harmonious and easy," notes Mr. Barshchuk. - Moreover, the right decision was made to re-profile the sites from the broilers to the hatching egg. But during the construction of a number of Optifood facilities there was not yet a corresponding production culture, some of the sites were essentially sheds. And the parent herd in the technological chain requires the most competent approach, a quality egg can be obtained only for the fortieth week. Apparently, the "White Bird" did not have enough resources from the point of view of the team, trained personnel, mistakes were made by top management. "

The possibility of overcoming the crisis Mr. Barshchuk connects with the partnership with the profile player, who will be able not only to adjust the technological process, but also to reduce the credit load.
The beneficiary of the "White Bird" is Promsvyaz Capital B. V. The former co-owner of Promsvyazbank (DPB), Dmitry Ananyev. After the temporary administration was introduced into the PSB, the loans of the "White Bird" enterprises were suspended, and the owner began negotiations on selling the business. They were interested in the Cherkizovo group of the Babaev family - Mikhailovs, Rusagro Vadim Moshkovich, the structure of the Agrocomplex. N.I. Tkachev (owned by the family of the former head of the Ministry of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev), the AVG Capital Partners fund Rustem Mirgalimova. "Cherkizovo" conducted an audit of the "White Bird", and employees of "Rusagro" even after the audit even began to write a strategy for the development of the group, told Kommersant source in the domestic poultry market. But, according to him, at the last moment "White Bird" changed the previously agreed terms of the transaction. The key issue was the land bank, designed for an outside company. As a result, Rusagro declined the deal.

In the regions of the Chernozem region, despite the previously spread rumors, the "White Bird" did not make statements about a possible suspension of production and reductions. "There are no prerequisites in the Kursk region for this," Kommersant Deputy Governor Alexei Zolotarev told Kommersant. Abbreviations and suspensions have not yet been planned in the Belgorod region, first deputy head of the regional department of the agro-industrial complex and reproduction of the environment Yulia Shchedrina assured Kommersant.

In 2017, the entire "White Bird" produced 302 thousand tons of poultry in live weight. Most of this volume fell to the group's enterprises in the Chernozem region. In this macroregion in the first half of 2018 the company continued to develop - in particular, it is building a grain drying complex in Gorshechensky district of the Kursk region with a capacity of 70 tons of grain per hour.