Klimavichy Distillery Declared Bankrupt

The army of ready to protest Belarusians has increased.

There have become more unemployed in the regions: the Klimavichy Distillery got tired of fighting for survival and submitted an application for bankruptcy. The Mahiliou Regional Court started the consideration of the case last week, but there is no information on the results yet – the factory management refuses to comment on the situation, Belsat reports.

Local residents: we used to work in three shifts at the factory, even at night

Now the distillery works with losses, and the attempts to save the situation have failed.

Two years ago, the Klimavichy Distillery got under the wing of the Minsk Krystal Group alcoholic holding, which is managed by the Minsk Kristal company. The decree on the establishment of the holding was signed by Lukashenka – alleging that it would optimize the market of domestic alcohol and help its promotion abroad.

However, in recent years, the Klimavichy Distillery has been surrounded by bad news mostly: the staff has been reduced, the salary has been delayed, the factory has even made the headlines because of the scandal with a new Italian line: a lot of money was spent, but it sat unused for a long time.

"The severity of the credits makes the company gravitate to the bottom. The BelaPAN director said they could not even pay taxes," – independent journalist Siarhei Arzhantsau says.

It is almost impossible to find a job

If the distillery is declared bankrupt and closed, there will be more than five hundred of the unemployed in Klimavichy, and it’s not an easy test to find another place in the town or in the district.

"The city does not develop, to be honest. Everything is on the decline, there is unemployment, reductions everywhere. All the collective farms are idle, there is no work, that's just the way it is, I’ve been looking for work for three month already – they offer me to work in Russia. I do not want to work in Russia, I want to work at home. I’ve been to the farm in Klimavichy – nobody offered me work there."

"The distillery, they say, is a bankrupt. In the future, most likely, if he goes bankrupt, I do not know how we will live here in Klimavichy," – the locals say.

A wave of cuts and liquidation of companies swept the district

Thus, they closed a housing and communal company, which used to employ 200 people, only one person instead of hundreds of workers – the guard – is left at the Mihalinski distillery.

According to this latest population census, 16,500 people live in Klimavichy, and, except the distillery, only the lime plant and the bread factory have remained. But the locals say that there is a massive cut of stuff there as well, and the average salary is about 250 rubles.