Three alcohol producers generated 83% of Ukraine’s sector profit in 2025

Revenue growth masks an uneven market

Ukraine’s alcohol and tobacco manufacturing industries reported UAH 104.6 billion in combined net revenue and UAH 5.3 billion in profit for 2025, according to dengi.ua. Revenue increased by 7.2% from the previous year, while profit rose by almost 49%. The headline growth, however, was driven disproportionately by a small number of producers.

More than 1,400 companies and individual entrepreneurs operate in the two industries. Their financial positions vary sharply: almost equal numbers of the alcohol companies with publicly available results were profitable and loss-making, while one manufacturer generated nearly all the tobacco sector’s aggregate profit.

Three companies dominate alcohol profit

The alcohol industry comprises 1,174 companies and 184 individual entrepreneurs producing spirits, wine, cider, other fruit and berry wines, fermented beverages and beer. Its net revenue increased by 7.8% in 2025 to UAH 84.9 billion, while profit advanced by 17.5% to UAH 3.24 billion.

Among producers with publicly available financial data, 188 companies ended the year with a profit and 177 recorded losses. Carlsberg Ukraine posted the industry’s largest profit at UAH 1.95 billion. Obolon followed with UAH 429.6 million, while LVN Limited earned UAH 297 million.

Together, the three companies generated approximately UAH 2.68 billion, or almost 83% of total alcohol-industry profit. At the other end of the market, AB InBev Efes Ukraine reported the largest loss among the producers analyzed, at UAH 392.4 million. The figures show that revenue growth across the industry did not translate into broadly shared profitability.

JTI accounts for 94% of tobacco profit

Ukraine’s tobacco manufacturing sector includes 118 companies and four individual entrepreneurs. Net revenue reached UAH 19.72 billion in 2025, up 4.6% from 2024. Profit increased 2.6 times, from UAH 804.9 million to UAH 2.07 billion.

Only 11 tobacco companies were profitable, compared with 27 that made losses. JTI Ukraine, part of Japan Tobacco International, recorded UAH 1.94 billion in net profit and accounted for about 94% of the sector total. BAT-Prilucky and Imperial Brands Production Ukraine were also among the most profitable producers, while Marshall Finest Tobacco Ukraine posted the largest loss at UAH 565.1 million.

Alcohol manufacturing remains much larger by company count and revenue. It has almost ten times as many companies as tobacco manufacturing and more than four times the net revenue. Yet its UAH 3.24 billion profit was only moderately above the tobacco sector’s UAH 2.07 billion, which was nearly two-thirds of the alcohol figure despite the sector’s far smaller revenue base.

Unequal capacity to absorb eExcise costs

Profit in the retail and wholesale tobacco trade moved in the opposite direction. The segment includes 13,889 business entities: 2,537 legal entities and 11,352 individual entrepreneurs, with the latter representing more than 81% of participants. Aggregate profit among legal entities fell by 27.1%, from UAH 5.59 billion in 2024 to UAH 4.08 billion in 2025.

The concentration of manufacturing profit is relevant as Ukraine prepares its electronic excise system, known as eExcise. The system is intended to provide accounting and traceability for excisable goods, verify their legal origin and confirm payment of excise tax. A proposal would postpone its mandatory launch until July 1, 2027, allowing businesses more time to test the platform and integrate accounting, production, warehouse and checkout processes.

According to the analysts cited by dengi.ua, the sector’s aggregate growth does not give every producer the same financial capacity to prepare. For the strongest companies, integration may primarily be a technology project. For loss-making or lower-margin manufacturers, the required systems and process changes could impose an additional financial burden.