The nominees were chosen by the Expert Council from among public associations, entrepreneurs and government officials. They selected the leading companies that made a great contribution to the development of the region.

Igor Artamonov, Head of Lipetsk Region, attended the award ceremony and noted that the contest would become a tradition to boost importance of the business community, promote their ideas, motivate small and medium-sized enterprises and give a new impetus to their development.

“Wrapping up the year, I would say that the business has done a good job. Nationally we are renowned largely due to your efforts. I congratulate you on the successful completion of the year and well-deserved awards. Next year our results will be even more substantial,” Igor Artamonov said.

According to the selection procedure, each nomination had 5 finalists and 1 winner. The experts choosing the finalist in the Investor of the Year nomination paid special attention to the size of investment, high investment assets to total assets ratio, new jobs created and taxes paid. The award was given to PROGRESS.

At the ceremony, Olga Belyavtseva, Member of the PROGRESS Board of Directors, received the award from Igor Artamonov and thanked the Expert Council for recognition.

“We are deeply honored to receive this award in our “home” region. The last 5 years has been a real breakthrough for PROGRESS. Our factory in Lipetsk is one of the largest state-of-the-art baby food production sites in Europe. We are committed to invest in our people and capabilities in order to deliver even more ambitious performance,” Natalia Medunova, Chief Executive Officer of PROGRESS, commented.