From Russia With Love

Cochran recently hosted a team of inspectors from Russia who were on site to renew our Certificate of Customs Union.

The Certificate of Customs Union is required to licence our products for use there. This new Certificate supersedes the GOST approval was first obtained in 1997 when we received an order from BAT for their new investment in Saratov. Since then we have gone on to supply a number of blue chip companies facilities in Russia, including Heinz, Coca Cola, Japan Tobacco and SAB Miller, as well as supplying dozens of units to Ministry of Railways and the St Petersburg district heating scheme.

David Branch, Head of Business Development, explained, “Cochran has been supplying Russia and the Baltic states since the mid-1990s, following the break-up of the former Soviet Union. Russia quickly became an important market for us and we realised very early on that to be successful we needed to make the necessary investment; not just in getting the necessary accreditations but also being building relationships with good quality local installation and aftermarket partners. This required us being able to understand the local culture and being able to communicate accurately, so to this end we have employed a native Russian speaker, Andrey Velichansky, from virtually day one. This has been invaluable in helping to understand and develop the business."

Although it well documented that the Russian economy is currently struggling, due to the low oil price, there is still business to be done and we are currently building a 7t/h Thermax for a project in Volgograd region”

For information on Cochran capabilities in Russia please contact Andrey (a.velich@yahoo.co.uk) or visit www.cochran.co.uk  (Russian language website www.cochranru.com )