David Yakobashvili is a businessman and collector

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Yakobashvili David Mikhailovich - co-founder of Wimm-Bill-Dann (WBD). Member of a large number of charitable and cultural and educational institutions. Head of the RSPP. This article will describe a brief biography of a businessman.

School

1957 is the year when Yakobashvili David Mikhailovich was born. The boy's family has Georgian and Jewish roots. Parents sent David to a school with a medical bias. Although Yakobashvili himself dreamed of becoming a diplomat. He later abandoned the idea because of his last name. After graduating from school, David entered the Polytechnic Institute (Tbilisi) with a degree in Civil and Industrial Engineering. Soon, financial difficulties began in the family. The young man had to drop out of school and go to work.

Raising piglets

During the day, David Yakobashvili worked in the laboratory of the Metallurgical University, and at night he worked as a laborer in the Metrostroy. Subsequently, he took up sound recording and repair of audio equipment. Then David got a job in private security and installed alarms in houses. In 1982, one program appeared for employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Its essencewas that they were allowed to take piglets to raise, and then return them to the state and receive money for the difference in weight. Yakobavshili got excited about this idea. Together with a friend, he built a small farm outside the city and brought 200 piglets there. A year later, the future head of Wimm-Bill-Dann sold the animals and made a profit.

First business

In the 1980s, David Mikhailovich Yakobashvili decided to leave Georgia. He lived in Sweden, Finland and Germany, where he worked as a driver and cleaner. In 1988, a young man came to Moscow. Familiar Finns asked David for help in finding a company that manufactures parts for euro pallets. Yakobashvili quickly found the right plant and earned the first big money - 22.5 thousand marks. After that, he immediately bought himself a Mercedes.

In 1988, David and his friends opened the first floating hotel on the Moscow River in the capital. Then he created the Trinity company. At the same time, he acquired a stake in the Ginseng he alth salon on Pokrovka. This institution became the first Soviet cooperative. Trinity's largest business was the sale of used American cars. Together with partners, Yakobashvili traveled to the USA for Chevrolets and Cadillacs. David also drove a carrier from Finland. In 1991, the hero of this article opened a General Motors dealership in Russia. In addition, Yakobashvili was engaged in neon advertising, furnishing the Metropol Hotel, and also installed the first anti-theft devices on cars.radio beacons.

Wimm-Bill-Dann

This company appeared in Russia in 1992. Sergey Plastinin, David Yakobashvili, Mikhail Dubinin and other partners rented a juice bottling line at the Lianozovo Dairy Plant. They also took out a $50,000 loan for start-up capital. Initially, juices bore the name of the company itself, consonant with the English "Wimbledon". And in 1994, the founders came up with the brand J7 (Seven Juices). After 12 months, WBD bought back the shares of the Lianozovo plant.

IPO

In 2002, Wimm-Bill-Dann held an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. Thus, it became the first food company in Russia to carry out an IPO. Placement of WBD was estimated at $830 million. Most of the shares were acquired by the French "Danone". Before the IPO procedure, Wimm-Bill-Dann disclosed all the necessary information about itself in the prospectus as reliably and fully as possible. It was even indicated that one of the company's shareholders (Gavriil Yushvaev) had a criminal record in the past.

Hobbies

David Yakobashvili loves karting, deep sea diving and riding a motorcycle. To many people, the businessman is known as a collector of musical instruments and antiques. The Russian press wrote a lot about it. An extensive collection of a businessman has no analogues in the world.

History of the collection

In the 1980s, David Yakobashvili, whose biography is presented above, went to Sweden to work. Young at firsta man cared for the sick, and then started driving cars from there to the Russian Federation. In Sweden, David became friends with Bill Lidval, a collector of mechanical tools and director of a construction company. In 2000, he decided to donate his collection of self-playing old instruments to Yakobashvili. Bill was very ill and was afraid that the children would sell the valuable collection after his death. And he really trusted the hero of this article.

David Yakobashvili continued Lidval's work. Now in his collection you can find many unique instruments. For example, two small mechanical organs from France. At one time they were owned by Louis XVII and Louis XVIII (monarchs). These are rare instruments that exist in a single copy. David also has a symphony owned by Adolf Hitler. And in the collection of Yakobashvili there are rare barrel-organs by the Italian master Bachi Galupo. The first one dates from the beginning of the 18th century.