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The Russian arm of French sugar group Sucden and Russia’s Milfoods, the company behind the Poetti and Milagro coffee brands, have agreed a strategic partnership, Kommersant reported, citing a letter Milfoods sent to counterparties. Both companies later confirmed the agreement. 

According to the letter, Milfoods has entered into a strategic partnership with SDS, Sucden's Russian subsidiary. The agreement is non-exclusive and is intended to give Milfoods access to a wider range of green coffee. 

No changes to Milfoods' management structure are envisaged. 

According to Kommersant, the deal probably also involved the pledging of a stake in Milfoods — held by the business's sole current owner, Vikas Soi, an Indian-born businessman who has lived in Russia since the 1990s — to Agroservice, a company controlled by Sucden entities. The pledge agreement was concluded in June 2026, according to the SPARK corporate database. Sucden said the pledge served as security for trade credit: Milfoods buys coffee from the group and has been steadily increasing volumes, a company representative said. 

"A minority stake of 35 % in Milfoods has been pledged as security for trade credit. The companies jointly state that the transaction is not connected with a sale of the stake and does not affect the management of the business," the two firms said in a joint statement. 

The statement described the tie-up as mutually beneficial: Milfoods gains access to a broader range of green coffee and to industry expertise, while SDS acquires an active partner capable of effectively realising the potential of green coffee supplies to the Russian market. 

Sucden is a major French food commodities group specialising in sugar, coffee and cocoa. It has operated in Russia since 1991 and owns four sugar plants in the Lipetsk and Penza regions and in Krasnodar territory. Sucden has previously stated officially that it intends to retain its Russian assets. 

Milfoods, established in 2008, bought the Russian assets of Finnish coffee producer Paulig in 2022 and launched the Poetti range at the acquired plant in Tver. Soi previously headed the Russian Milagro Beverage Company (whose coffee brands included Milagro, D'Arte and Belagio). Milfoods now holds the rights to the Milagro brand and its official website. 

Sucden said it had no plans to take an equity stake in Milfoods. One of Kommersant's sources in the agricultural market, however, is convinced that the arrangement is in effect a disguised acquisition. Another source told the paper that Milfoods had been deliberately seeking a buyer for the business. Ilya Shumov, an investment banker, values Milfoods at 2.5-3 billion rubles ($32-39 million at the current exchange rate). 

According to Elizaveta Varova, a consultant in the business and asset valuation practice at Neo, pledging a stake can amount to gaining control without a formal purchase. It could be an intermediate stage in a larger acquisition, since the arrangement guarantees that the asset will not pass to competitors. 

"The agreement is not a covert purchase and does not entail a transfer of control over Milfoods to SDS. Nor does the transaction envisage any changes to Milfoods' current management structure," the companies stressed in their statement.