One of the oldest enterprises in the wine industry in Moldova - the Chisinau factory of sparkling and vintage wines Vismos - is being liquidated.
According to the published announcement of the liquidation of the enterprise, creditors' claims are accepted within 2 months. It should be noted that the history of the Vismos plant dates back to 1941. The plant was formed as a result of the merger of 2 wineries. In 1966, the Chisinau Wine Factory was divided into two specialized enterprises: Moldvinshampankombinat (now JV Vismos) and Chisinau Wine and Divin Factory (now JSC Aroma). In 1993 "Moldvinshampancombinat" changed its name to the Chisinau plant of sparkling and vintage wines Vismos. At the same time, Vismos became the first privatized winery in Moldova. In 2002, in the course of privatization, the Aroma Trading House (Moscow) became the owner of 99.96% of the plant's shares, acquiring them for $ 1.4 million. The buyer pledged to pay off the debts of the plant in the amount of 31.2 million lei ($ 2.3 million at that time), to invest $ 3.2 million in the Moldovan asset within 5 years, of which $ 1.6 million will be spent on planting 500 hectares of vineyards, $ 1.1 million - for the development of the material and technical base of the enterprise and $ 500 thousand - for replenishment of working capital. At the same time, the investor in just 1 year completed a 5-year investment program in the development of the enterprise. However, the wine embargo imposed by Russia in March 2006 had a strong negative impact on the enterprise's activities, since Vismos focused mainly on the Russian market. Returning to the Russian market a year after the embargo did not save the situation. Therefore, at first the plant abandoned the production of still wines due to their unprofitability, and then stopped producing sparkling Vismos wines, which turned out to be more expensive than their counterparts produced in Russia. Only divins and brandy remained in the assortment of the enterprise, and the plant worked on divins until the second Russian embargo, which happened in September 2013. After supplies to the Russian market stopped again, the enterprise tried to find alternative sales markets for its products, but export volumes were not as large as the previous deliveries to Russia, which were made possible earlier thanks to the large investments made to ensure high sales on the Russian market directly through the trading house "Aroma". As a result, the owners of Vismos began to get rid of the assets of the enterprise in stages, putting up vineyards for sale, a plant for primary processing of grapes in the village Moscovei of the Cahul district. Subsequently, these assets were acquired by LLC Vinaria Bostavan. To simplify all the formalities, in the summer of 2015, JSC Vismos was reorganized into an LLC, which is the legal successor of all rights and obligations. At the Vismos plant, the production of divins was also curtailed. In 2016, the last batches of distillates were removed from aging and sold to one of the largest domestic producers of divins. Previously bottled divins remained in trade on the domestic market. Currently, Vismos still has real estate in Chisinau on the str. Uzinelor, distillation equipment and a company store where the remains of the divins that were bottled back in 2014 are sold. They have already become rarities. The enterprise that stood at the origins of the Moldovan industrial winemaking is actually gone.// 12.11.2021 — InfoMarket
