INTERVIEW-Unilever exec says Russian business buoyant

MOSCOW, July 3 (Reuters) - Food and household products maker Unilever's (ULVR.L) (UNc.AS) Russian business is thriving, with the crisis a good time for the company to expand, a company executive said on Friday.

"Our business is still very buoyant," Executive Vice President Antoine de Saint-Affrique said in an interview with Reuters Television.

"The crisis is actually a fantastic time for expansion. Crisis does not mean that people are eating less or trying to be less beautiful so it is an ideal time to keep investing in a country and keep growing your business."

Russia, a Top 20 market for Anglo-Dutch Unilever, along with China, are priority markets for the world's third-biggest food and consumer goods group because they are growing.

On Thursday, Unilever, which makes Knorr soups, Lipton tea and Dove soap, closed a deal to acquire a ketchup production facility from local company Baltimor. The deal, valued at 2.4 billion roubles ($77.12 million), will make Unilever Russia's largest producer of ketchups and dressings.

"We had positions that were not strong enough in Russia. Baltimor is the market leader in ketchups so there was a perfect strategic fit between our portfolio and the Baltimor brand," de Saint-Affrique said.

Unilever, which has a 20 percent share of Russia's ice cream market, also began construction of an ice cream factory in the Tula region in central Russia. The company plans to invest $140 million dollars in the factory before 2014.

"Ice cream is certainly a very big priority for us," de Saint-Affrique said.

(Reporting by Kyrill Sukhotski; writing by Maria Kiselyova and Gleb Bryanski; editing by Karen Foster)

((gleb.bryanski@reuters.com ; +7 495 775 1242; Reuters Messaging: gleb.bryanski.reuters.com@reuters.net )) Keywords: UNILEVER RUSSIA/

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