The UK arm of Amber Beverage Group, the sister company to Stoli Group, has been declared insolvent and is now in administration.
Amber Beverage UK (ABUK), which, according to its website, has been operating in the UK for “25-plus” years, handled domestic sales and distribution for its parent company as well as for Stoli Group. When contacted by Global Drinks Intel today (20 October), the unit’s MD, Pavel Verblyudenko, confirmed the appointment last Friday of BDO as the company’s administrators.
“The company’s lender has agreed,” Verblyudenko said. “They now took control of the company.”
Earlier this month, Global Drinks Intel learned that ABUK had notified the third-party brands the unit had represented that it no longer had funding to continue operations, with offers having been invited to buy the business. A spokesperson declined to comment on the claims at the time.
In a LinkedIn post today (20 October), a national account manager with the division also confirmed the end of operations. “Amber Beverage UK has ceased trading and thus company-wide redundancy,” said Christian Tirel in the post. “Upon losing the financing facility – it is essentially a ticking clock for the distributor model, to the sound of a matter of weeks – regardless of whether the company was turning a profit or not.
“Alas one could not be found, so here we are.”
Global Drinks Intel has requested further details on the number of employees affected and the future plans for the handling in the country of the likes of Stoli and Elit vodkas, Bayou rum, Cenote tequila and Tulchan gin.
This week’s development is the latest in a line of troubling headlines for Amber Beverage Group (ABG) and Stoli Group, dating back to late 2024, when the latter’s US division and Kentucky Owl American whiskey business filed for bankruptcy. The subsequent declaration in January this year was followed that same month by an application for legal protection proceedings for the Amber Latvijas Balzams unit in Latvia. ALB, which is partially publicly listed in the country, applied to terminate the status this month, claiming that an unnamed “third party acquired a majority of the claims against the company” held by two creditors, “thereby obtaining significant influence within the secured creditors’ group”.
Both ABG and Stoli Group are owned by Russian businessman Yuri Shefler, who, speaking to a UK newspaper two weeks ago, claimed that former Latvian Prime Minister Andris Šķēle had recently demanded control of Stoli Group. The assertion, which the former Prime Minister has denied, also connected Šķēle with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “inner circle”.
