Andriy Martsola: from small-scale wholesale alcohol distribution in Lviv to beer trading in "LPR/DPR" and Moscow

The owner of “First Private Brewery,” Andriy Matsola, rarely appears in the media, especially in recent years. After a burst of media activity two or three years ago, where Matsola appeared as a domestic “guru,” describing how he rose from a simple small wholesale alcohol trader to business heights, and his activities as a benefactor, everything gradually faded away.

From the recent information about Andriy, one can find—albeit with difficulty—materials that tell quite an unpleasant story about him. It concerns his business with the "L/DPR" and joint beer production with Andriy Kobzon. The latter is the son of the now-deceased Joseph Kobzon, who was famous for always serving the ruling regime in the country and, in recent years, was one of the most prominent supporters of Putin and Russia’s war against Ukraine.

To briefly remind you, this is the essence of the joint business between Matsola and Kobzon. Andriy Matsola is a co-owner of the “Moscow Brewing Company.” Another owner of this brewery is Andriy Kobzon. They own the rights to the “Zhiguli” brand through a joint company called “Strategy.”

The “Moscow Brewing Company” is part of the “Oasis CIS” holding, which Matsola and Kobzon own through an offshore company, “ECHELON SYSTEM.” “Oasis” also owns part of the Radomyshl Beer-Nonalcoholic Plant, located in the Zhytomyr region. Back in 2011, the Radomyshl Beer-Nonalcoholic Plant was purchased by the “Oasis CIS” holding, founded by citizens of Russia, Israel, the USA, and the UK. Among their co-owners are Russians Yevgeny Kashper, Alexander Livshits, and Andriy Kobzon.
Regarding trade with the “L/DPR,” the scandal arose back in 2014 at the beginning of the war. Here’s what “Obozrevatel” wrote about it: “Andriy Matsola is not ashamed to sell ‘First Private Brewery’s’ beer not only in Russia but also in Crimea, ‘DPR,’ and ‘LPR.’ It is significant that in ‘DPR,’ ‘LPR,’ and the annexed Crimea, Matsola sells his products produced both in the Russian Federation and Ukraine.”

If you try to find this article, which provided details of the entire scheme, you will find that it has long since been removed from open access—the material has been purged, as have reprints of it on other sites. With difficulty, it is possible to find scraps and with no less difficulty, restore the whole scheme: First Private Brewery and its owner Andriy Matsola: the brewer clears his ties with the ’L/DPR’ terrorists.

It is equally difficult to find an unadorned biography of the “simple Lviv guy” Andriy Matsola, who over twenty years has transformed into one of the pillars of domestic business and managed to capture about 15% of the beer and non-alcoholic market in Ukraine.

As could be restored (again from fragmentary data, often contradictory), Andriy Matsola began his rise in the bygone 1990s. By the way, even about his family, Matsola often speaks in mutually exclusive terms. For example, about his grandfather, who even became the hero of a beer commercial, Matsola said that he was: 1) an outstanding carpenter and wood specialist; 2) an organizer of an agricultural cooperative for apple growing.

Whatever you like more—you decide. The same applies to Andriy Matsola’s mother.

She is either a doctor, as indicated by the registration data of the municipal enterprise “Family Practice Outpatient Clinic” in the village of Tarasivka, Tyachiv district, Zakarpattia region:

Although the clinic is currently liquidated, we are dealing with the history, albeit not distant.

Or she is a businesswoman: at the moment when Mariya Matsola was managing, according to registry data, this village outpatient clinic, she was at the same time engaged in business, moreover, quite successfully. In one way or another, she is listed as being involved in at least 12 business structures:

Including the Radomyshl Beer-Nonalcoholic Plant and “First Private Brewery.” It was also found out that “simple village doctor” Maria Matsola in 2006 was the assistant to People’s Deputy Anatoliy Rudnyk, former director of “Ukrtransgaz.” Today, Rudnyk has long been forgotten, but back in 2003, he became the main figure in a scandal surrounding the leak of confidential information to foreign companies from “Lvivtransgaz.”

However, let’s return to the nineties when the Matsola family business began to gain momentum. The most logical version seems to be that the push for development was the cooperative “Konkurent” founded by Mariya Matsola in partnership with some Ivan Ivanovych Ivashko, re-registered in the early 90s as LLC “Production and Commercial Firm Konkurent.” It was engaged in small wholesale alcohol trade, distributing it to shops and kiosks. It was in this firm that after finishing school, Andriy Matsola’s brother, Roman Matsola, who later became a People’s Deputy, began his employment journey—he was hired as a commodities expert at “Konkurent.”

In 1997, Mariya Matsola founded LLC “Olmar” with a rather significant authorized capital for those times—over 100 thousand dollars, becoming the main family enterprise a year later. It was also the main place of work for Roman Matsola: in 1998, he became the director of the enterprise, then gave way to his younger brother and from 1999 to 2012 held the position of deputy director for commerce, and in 2012-2014 headed “Olmar” again, after which, having become a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, he quit and pretended to have only an indirect relationship with the family business. In reality, this is not the case, and Roman Matsola was and remains a full-fledged partner of his brother Andriy, mother Mariya, and father Mykola.

Like all millionaires (not only domestic ones, by the way), Andriy Matsola tells about the “first million earned” rather unclearly. Thus, it remains unclear how “Olmar,” which, according to Matsola, “distributed beer to shops on old ‘Zhiguli’ cars,” became a regional distributor of “Carlsberg” beer from “Baltic Beverages Holding AB.” And in 1998 began claiming joint ownership of the Lviv “Kolos” Brewery with “Baltic Beverages Holding AB.”

However, something happened at the very last moment with the purchase of the brewery’s stake, and Matsola was pushed out of the acquisition of “Kolos.” The reasons for this are unknown; various rumors circulate. The most popular version is a clash among local organized crime groups, in which Andriy Matsola was somehow involved.

But, be that as it may, the indicative fact is that the modest family firm distributing alcohol to stores in Lviv somehow had the money to buy a beer factory. Although in the nineties it was worth less than now, against its cost even the fantastic sum of 100 thousand dollars for those times, declared as the authorized capital of “Olmar,” was mere pennies. How it really was is unknown, but the Matsola family was squeezed out from the purchase of the brewery and continued to engage in beer distribution.

But in 2002, the dream finally came true—the family founded LLC “First Private Brewery,” the Matsolas bought an old Soviet kvass production workshop on George Washington Street in Lviv, renamed it to “Galician Brewer” and launched beer production under the “Dobradiy” brand, simultaneously continuing the production of “Lviv Kvass.” However, there was not enough money for new equipment, and the Matsolas’ products were not in high demand, losing to competitors in all respects. How the enterprise was kept afloat is a mystery; Matsolas must have had another income source allowing them to subsidize the unprofitable enterprise.

Moreover, this source was evidently not small: in a very short time, the family purchased a neighboring plot where they built a modern line that began production under the “First Private Brewery” brand.

In 2007, “First Private Brewery” received a credit of 17.6 million dollars from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which on one hand allowed Matsola to do PR on this, but on the other hand, raised the question—how exactly a simple small alcohol trader, of which there were thousands in the nineties, both in Lviv and in other cities, suddenly made a leap to business heights. From all of Andriy Matsola’s interviews, which he actively gave a few years ago, this issue remains unresolved.

This year, the enterprise issued and sold bonds worth 10 million hryvnias (the dollar was still at five). According to indirect data, then advisor to the head of the National Bank Petro Poroshenko provided help in this. If someone concludes that “Porokh” is to blame for everything, then perhaps it is so. But the question remains open—as just yesterday’s small trader reached the level of the advisor to the head of the National Bank and on the verge of becoming an oligarch?

From this moment, cooperation between Matsolas and the “Ukrpominvest” group, which was founded by Oleksiy Poroshenko (the father of the fifth president) in 1993, began. It was a family corporation until 2012 and united many groups and enterprises.

According to the results of 2007 and 2008, PJSC “Radomyshl,” which owned the aforementioned Beer-Nonalcoholic Plant, declared millions in losses. At the same time, “First Private Brewery” received a loan from the EBRD and sold its bonds, and Poroshenko and Matsolas signed an agreement under which the “Radomyshl” factory provided its production facilities to the brothers for the production of “First Private Brewery” beer. On what terms, what Poroshenko received from this is unknown. It is only known that in 2009-2010, the factory was 70% loaded with the production of “First Private Brewery” products, which thanks to this entered the ranks of Ukraine’s large brewers (2.5% of the market).

At the beginning of 2012, the international holding “Oasis CIS” announced a merger with “First Private Brewery” under a scheme that left the Matsolas as owners and managing partners of their plant but at the same time made them co-owners of “Oasis CIS.” And in the spring of 2012, the Cyprus offshore company “Boneten Limited,” on which “First Brewery” is registered, became the owner of the “Radomyshl” Plant. The beneficiary of the enterprise is Andriy Matsola.

And in 2011, the Radomyshl plant was sold to the international holding “Oasis CIS,” which is registered offshore and belongs, among others, to Russians Yevgeniy Kashper, Alexander Livshits, and Andriy Kobzon. In Russia, they are co-owners and managing partners of the “Moscow Brewing Company,” which is part of the “Oasis CIS” holding. More precisely, they own it through the offshore company “ECHELON SYSTEM.”

This complex scheme, hidden by several offshore overlays, allowed Matsola to enter the Russian beer market, which is many times larger than the domestic one, both in volume and prices.

Moreover, through all these overlays, Andriy Matsola became the main controller of the “Moscow Brewing Company,” allowing him to receive the lion’s share of the profit from the Russian market. For understanding the order of figures: only the brewery in Mytishchi, in which investors invested 200 million dollars, produces over 3 million hectoliters of beer per year—while both Ukrainian breweries of Andriy Matsola and his family produce half as much and are collectively valued at a maximum of 85 million dollars.

By the way, at the end of 2011, there was a presentation of “Zhiguli Barnoe” beer, which Andriy Matsola has the right to produce, at Kyiv’s Arena Beer House. Contrary to the patriotism demonstrated in interviews with domestic media, the presentation with the participation of the Matsola brothers took place under the slogan “Zhiguli Barnoe—the legendary USSR beer for cultural recreation.” And the beer was promoted by a dressed-up Brezhnev and the real, and at that time still alive, Joseph Kobzon.

Everything was fine until 2014, when the war began. And then it turned out that Andriy Matsola, like many (for example, Poroshenko, who was president then, and Zelensky, who is president now) has a business in Russia. And—moreover: Russian media did not miss the opportunity to report that Matsola’s beer company paid more than 4 billion rubles in taxes to the Russian budget. The scandal was complicated by the fact that Roman Matsola was a People’s Deputy of Ukraine at that time. And by the fact that data emerged on the trade of “Zhiguli” beer, the brand rights of which belonged to Andriy Matsola, in annexed Crimea and occupied Donbas.

As Poroshenko, with all his desire, could not sell the Lipetsk factory since all its documents were confiscated by the Russians, Matsola claimed he exited the business in Russia. However, under what conditions and how exactly it happened remains a mystery to this day—no documents or registry excerpts have been shown to the public by Andriy Matsola.

Meanwhile, domestic media began to publish materials about Andriy Matsola’s help to the army—LLC “First Private Brewery” provided the National Guard with sleeping bags worth 25,000 dollars. And at the same time, it appealed to the Security Service of Ukraine with a complaint about “the spread of false information” and a request to check Matsola’s business for “involvement in financing terrorist activities.” Within a month, the Security Service of Ukraine stated that “no such involvement was found during the conducted inspection.”

Meanwhile, a check on the beneficiaries of the “Oasis CIS” corporation and the offshore “ECHELON SYSTEM,” which do not hide their involvement in business in Russia, particularly with the “Moscow Brewing Company,” clearly contradicts the statement by the Security Service of Ukraine.

Furthermore, information emerged that Andriy Matsola might even permanently relocate to Russia, while Roman Matsola would remain in Ukraine. How true this is—we will see. In the near future, indeed. But from the fact that in the last year, Andriy Matsola has stopped being visible in domestic media as a patriot and benefactor of the Ukrainian army, certain conclusions can already be drawn, although they are not substantiated by anything yet.