Itogi (Moscow), November 4, 2003

Winners in the national business award "Company of the Year 2003" were announced at the end of last week. The Russian energy grid RAO UES of Russia was announced the winner in the category Manufacturing as the best company in the fuel and energy complex. United Heavy Machinery received an award in machine building, Wimm-Bill-Dann in the food industry, Mechel (Chelyabinsk Metal Works) in the metal industry, Arkhangelsk pulp-and-paper plant in the timber industry and Razgylyay UKRROS in the agroindustrial complex. Bank of Moscow was announced the best credit organization in Russia, Rossiya insurance company was awarded as the best insurance company of the year and PIOGLOBAL Asset Management as the best investment company. Ernst & Young was awarded for Business services, Perekriostok trading house was the winner in the nomination Public consumer services and Techmarket became the company of the year in retail trade. Other winners were ZAO TransTeleKom (Telecommunications), Dixis (Distribution and trade) and Sbarro (Franchising). Ramstore was named the best trade network, Novorossiysk Seaport won in the nomination Transport and Logistics, Natalie Tours became the company of the year in tourism and 1С - in Information technologies. A total number of winners reached 30, corresponding to the number of nominations. The number of nominations is growing while there were only seven nominations at the very spring of this award. Among the recently added nominations were Discovery of the year, Business reputation, the Breakthrough of the year, For contribution to revival of industry, Most dynamically developing company, For best management, For best marketing, For corporate management and many others. Each of these nominations found their winners that were determined in three stages. First, the award's organization committee conducted a questioning among members of the expert council. They named the most outstanding companies for 2003 in each nomination, thus drawing a preliminary list of candidates. Second, a short list including three candidates for each nominations was drawn after polling. At the third stage, the expert council determined winners for each nominations by secret ballot. Members of the expert council were influential representatives of the business community, state governing agencies and public figures. For the second time, "Company of the Year" award is held under the aegis of the Russian Economic Development and Trade Ministry.

The national business award "Company of the Year" was started in 1999 by RosBusinessConsulting. The goal of this project is to promote the development of businesses in Russia, to draw the attention of the global business community to the best domestic companies, to attract foreign investments and expand ties with foreign companies. The award is meant to serve as a landmark for the Russian business community, pointing out companies that represent the new image of the domestic economy. The size of a company is not important, a small but dynamically developing firm can easily leave behind Russian economic giants in this award. The award ceremony was attended by ex-chairman of the Central Bank Viktor Gerashchenko, Senior Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Tatyana Paramonova, RAO UES of Russia CEO Anatoly Chubais and Alexander Shokhin, the Chairman of the Renaissance Capital Supervisory Board. Among other participants of the ceremony was presidential aide Sergey Yastrzhembsky. "The Company of the Year award promotes contemporary approaches to business, which is very important for this country," Tatyana Paramonova was quoted as saying.

Ivan Rybin