FructoPak Ltd. is located in Tula and became a part of the Wimm-Bill-Dann production and trade group in October 2002.
In 1995, the administration of Tula region signed an agreement with the Italian company FIAT to build a factory for the processing of apples and carrots, which were grown in the region. The first carton of apple juice ‘DEPSONA’ (from the contraction of the Russian words Children’s Food, Juice and Beverages, as the plant was initially designed for the production of children’s food) was produced in Tula, on January 17, 1997. In December 2004, Depsona Ltd. changed its name to FructoPak Ltd..
Depsona products won gold and silver medals at the international exhibitions PETERFOOD and WORLD FOOD. Depsona juices were named Brand of the Year 1999 in the category ‘Non-alcoholic Beverages’. In 2001, Depsona manufactured products made it into the list of the top 100 best products in Russia.
However, despite these successes, at that time Depsona did not enjoy the stability critical for any business. In the second half of 2002, the production lines were utilized at a level of only 25% to 30%.
With the arrival of Wimm-Bill-Dann, new areas were built and an AsPet line, made by one of the world leaders in cold aseptic packaging in PET bottles, was installed and put into operation. There were no other similar types of production lines in Russia at the time. An electronic management system for filling bottles was installed on the line. All of the machines are linked to each other in a local network and the line has access to the internet. This permits the displays of the primary machines to control the other machines as well as remote access to data on the line from any point in the world with internet access.
On January 30, 2004, the launch took place of a high-speed aseptic line for the filling of juice, nectars and drinks in PET bottles using cold filling technology with productivity of 20,000 bottles per hour.
In addition 1,800 meters of warehouse space were built (a warehouse for the storage of finished products and a warehouse for the storage of raw materials).
There are lines for the loading, crushing and pressing high quality apple concentrate, meeting world-wide standards. The concentrate is subsequently used for the preparation of juices and nectars. This line is one of the best in Russia of its kind.