Companies / Brig-Star Group, OOO

Brig-Star Group of Companies with headquarters in Moscow is a dynamically rising major importer and distributor on the Russian seafood market with the group's annual turnover approaching one billion RUR.

Much of the group's success has been due to its General Director and Owner Ms. Irina Arkhipova who has been at the helm since the start of trading in 1998.

Apart from capital, expertise and entrepreneurship, Irina Arkhipova has invested into the business her solid educational background with several Russian university degrees as well as the MBA diploma (Switzerland) of MGIMO International Business School.

The group's further advance is being fuelled by the ambitious plans for long-term development, providing, in particular, for construction of up-to-date cold store complexes and fish processing facilities.

In line with its current policy of establishing reliable and longterm partnerships Brig-Star has been stepping up international cooperation and promoting Russia's integration into the European market.

The group's membership in the Norwegian-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry is only natural within the above framework.

Brig-Star opened doors in 1998 in Moscow to start trading as a large-scale wholesaler of freshfrozen fish, shellfish and mollusks. Now the group runs two more offices in Vladivostok and Saint Petersburg.

Importation

The geography of the group's business contacts is wide and various. Brig-Star buys saury in South Korea from Ocean Trading Company and saury, pangasius fillets and tilapia in China from Yen Jing Corporation.

Brig-Star also imports fish products from Gallant International based in China.

Under the contracts with the Canadian company Breakers Seafood the group imports hake, mackerel and capelin to Russia.

Norway is Russia's leading supplier of herring, mackerel, capelin, saithe, halibut and rock ling and Brig-Star cooperates with large Norwegian suppliers and producers such as Norway Pelagic AS, Nergard AS, Friomar AS, Egersund Fisk, Nils Sperre AS.

Considerable volumes of mackerel and herring are imported from Great Britain (Denholm Seafood Ltd) and from Ireland (Atlantic Dawn).

Russian suppliers

The group purchases Alaska pollock, pink salmon, chum salmon, squid and other species in the Russian Far East in cooperation with Preobrazhenje Trawl Fleet Base (PBTF for short in Russian), Ozernovsky Fish Processing Combine, JSC ZAO Akros and OOO Nerpa (ltd).

Murmansk-based Transflotservis and NordKost supply Brig-Star with mackerel, herring, saithe, haddock, halibut, sea cat and ocean perch.

Brig-Star has also established close and longterm partnerships with Russian fish processors to which the group supplies freshfrozen fish, shellfish and mollusks. The long list of the group's customers includes Proviant Group of Companies from Ryazan, Kriga from Nizhny Novgorod, ROK-1 from Saint Petersburg, Togliatti Fish Company, AOS Company from Moscow and Kubankurortservis from Novorossiisk.

Sales team

Brig-Star's sales team has a longstanding experience of seafood trade on the international market. The group's success has been achieved not only thanks to the staff's commercial expertise, but also thanks to efficient logistics and accurate analysis of the domestic and international markets.

The group's staff participates in international exhibitions in Moscow, Brussels (Belgium), Shanghai (China), Qingdao (China), Busan (South Korea). The group's General Director Irina Arkhipova also took part in the Economic Forum in Geneva in 2006 and in Zurich in 2007.

In October 2006 Brig-Star and Irina Arkhipova in person were awarded diplomas and prizes of the European Falcon (International Association for European Cooperation and Integration).