The SPI Group takes its responsibilities as an employer and as a corporate citizen very seriously. By expanding our operations we are not only creating new jobs in different countries, we are also strengthening international cultural and social contacts between Eastern Europe and Western Europe.

Across the group, we have aimed to create a unifying focus on the customer – be that the wholesaler, the retailer, or those who consume our products. Customer satisfaction is considered to be one of the principal measures of the organisation’s success.

To achieve customer satisfaction, it is essential to supply the market with products of premium quality, and outstanding customer appeal. To achieve this, we ensure that all of our operations understand the needs and expectations of customers, and ensure their goals and tasks are aligned with consumer needs and measure customer satisfaction. Internally, we spend a lot of time communicating the importance of such stringent goals.

We take our role as a producer of alcoholic drinks – and the responsibilities which go with that – very seriously. We make sure that all our sales operations work to ethically responsible marketing practices. Our Latvijas Balzams plant in Riga, for example, recently adopted a voluntary which establishes marketing and advertising guidelines that exceed state requirements. It was the first of Latvia’s beverage manufacturers to adopt voluntarily such practices.

The SPI group believes it is essential to take a look at the impact of our activities on the world around us – and we constantly strive to improve our environmental performance. Projects have included studying our packaging materials and working with local authorities and business partners to develop additional recycling programmes.


Employee development
Our top managers see it as their main task to secure unity behind these goals. To this end, good employee development is seen as key. Throughout SPI, there is a range of employee professional development programmes – with people regularly refreshing their skills through training workshops and refresher courses.

There is a group-wide information system which makes sure all employees receive, in a timely fashion, all the relevant company news they need to build up a full picture of how the business is functioning. This will cover results, problems that have arisen or may arise, studies of ways to improve both individual processes and entire operation systems and any notice of staff meetings.

Employee welfare
The health and well being of our staff is central to our success. We have a range of corporate social programmes, which include free health resort spa treatments and dental services. We give certain interest-free loans to employees and provide educational assistance for our employees and children. We regularly organise summer holidays for families and have active sports teams.


Social responsibility
At SPI we know that being a responsible employer does not stop at the gates of our different operating businesses. We run a range of schemes in local communities to ensure that we are a good corporate citizen.

In Tambov, for example, we provide sponsorship to orphanages and the local children’s sport schools. In Kaliningrad, we fund a children’s rehabilitation centre, the city’s zoo, kindergartens and schools and a cadet boarding school. In Riga, we recently started a programme which aims to improve the academic and physical well-being of children in orphanages and funds a training programme for teachers. The facility has also provided significant support in the wider campaign to preserve the cultural heritage of Latvia which has, among other things, restored the Freedom Monument in downtown Riga and restored the famous Riga Dom organ