business
Mondelez Keeps Russia Operations Running After 2022 Invasion
Chief executive Dirk Van de Put told the BBC the company chose to stay in Russia to protect jobs and avoid plant confiscation, while noting taxes paid there help fund the war. The firm also operates two plants in Ukraine that have been struck and rebuilt.
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Mondelez continues to operate its business in Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Chief executive Dirk Van de Put told the BBC it was the right decision for the company to stay, citing the risk that the Kremlin would confiscate its plant if it left. Van de Put said Mondelez is not pleased that its taxes in Russia help fund the war with Ukraine.
He added that pulling out would give the Kremlin a larger source of income from continued sales of the company's products. The company discontinued new investment in its Russian business and suspended spending on advertising. 4 billion in annual sales for Mondelez since the full-scale invasion.
More than 70 MPs signed a letter from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ukraine to Van de Put calling for Mondelez to sever its business ties with Russia. Mondelez also operates in Ukraine. On the morning Van de Put spoke to the BBC, an office building there was hit.
The company runs two manufacturing plants in Ukraine: one in Trostyanets near the Russian border and one in Vyshhorod near Kyiv. One plant was hit twice and rebuilt twice. Rebuilding costs tens of millions of dollars.
Mondelez doubled salaries of its employees in Ukraine when the conflict started and has not fired any employees there since. "We're committed there but for the people that work there every day there's danger," Van de Put said.
