Billionaires with big names are not only in Russia, but also in Belarus, one of them is Chizh Yuri Alexandrovich. According to the authoritative Forbes magazine, the businessman is one of the most influential people in the world. Yuri Alexandrovich achieved his successes and huge capital thanks to a well-built business, painstaking work and desire. We decided to tell the story of this influential person in this publication.
Yuri Chizh: biography
Chizh, or rather Chyzh Yuri, was born on March 28, 1963 in the Brest region, the village of Soboli. The future billionaire was a real bully; questions about his behavior always raised questions for his parents. By the way, Chizh Yuriy was born and raised in a family of ordinary peasants. By religion, his father was Orthodox, and his mother was a Baptist.
Despite his useless behavior and disorderly character, Yuri Alexandrovich was a diligent student. At the final exams, he only did not reach the average mark (4.5), so the Polytechnic Institute had to literally break through, having defended all four instead of two entrance exams. Having passed through all the obstacles, Yuri Chizh nevertheless became one of the students of the BNTU Electrotechnical Institute.
The first working days
After graduation, the current billionaire went to work at the Tractor Plant in Minsk, where he was allocated by distribution, like all Soviet citizens.
Yuri Alexandrovich always laid out in full, whether it be a school, institute, or work. In his first place, Chizh was known as an executive and responsible employee, which allowed him to climb the career ladder and become the head of the energy service of the entrusted corps in just seven years.
Adventurism + determination = own business
In the nineties, when the USSR system began to disintegrate, the tractor factory where the hero of our article worked, began to incur losses. Yuri Chizh suggested that the senior management slightly change the scope of activities and begin to produce goods that could keep the company afloat, but they did not listen to it - the next offer met another rejection. The future entrepreneur realized that with such a leadership there would be nothing good, therefore, having gained determination (he always had more than enough adventurism), he wrote a letter of resignation. In the early nineties, many lost their jobs, began to drink excessively, not finding a place for themselves in later life, but this is not about Yuri Alexandrovich. He took the situation into his own hands, assessed the opportunities and prospects, and created Triple, an enterprise that initially consisted of two employees - Chizh himself, who had to master the basics of accounting, and his colleague - the secretary-clerk.
Activity of the company
Initially, a small company was engaged in mediation, cargo transportation. These directions were chosen by Yuri Alexandrovich not in vain, because Belarus stands in the center of Europe and is a transit country. After no trace was left of the USSR, this direction was chosen very wisely, in accordance with the requests of that seemingly distant era. Everything was transported - from carpets to building materials. All the money earned went to business development. Soon, Yuri Chizh created two subsidiaries that were engaged in the production of plastic carpentry and drinks.
Business development
It was not for nothing that Yuri Alexandrovich chose a direction in engineering: he understood that the former USSR countries would undergo a construction boom, “Europeanization”, and therefore a large volume of double-glazed windows would be required.
Yuri Chizh began his activity with food production, and relied on quality, assortment and closed production. That is, the Aqua Triple company itself created products and packaged them. The secret of Chizh's success lies in the fact that, unlike many start-up businessmen, he abandoned the idea of resale, transport, and focused on production.
Already in the nineties, a supernew technological equipment was installed at the company's production sites, only high-quality, fortified ingredients were selected, which made the products very popular. However, the entrepreneur was not going to stop there.
Further activities
Since 1997, the future billionaire begins to develop the restaurant business. The first catering facility was called "Rakovsky Brovar" - now it is a whole network of restaurants and cafes.
A ski resort was erected in Logoisk, which was popularly called the monument erected by Chizh during his lifetime. Soon, the resort became known as a health resort, where not only citizens of the former USSR, but also tourists from more distant countries come to relax.
Oil industry
Yuri Chizh was not going to stop, he understood that he was lucky in any business field, that he had a real grasp, so he took steps in the development of his enterprises wider and wider. In 2002, he created a company engaged in oil refining, and finished products were exported and imported. Soon, such industrial giants as Lukoil, Bashneft, TNK-BP Holding, Gazpromneft began to cooperate with Chizh.
Along with the refining of petroleum products, Yuri Alexandrovich opened a network of gas stations.
Sanctions against Yuri Chizh
At the end of March 2012, the businessman was forbidden to visit the territory of the European Union - sanctions were imposed because of his friendship with the family of President Lukashenko. The documentation stated that Chizh supported the financial regime of Lukashenko through his group of firms.
In 2015, the ban on visiting the European Union was lifted due to insufficient evidence.
Today
The criminal case against the billionaire is ongoing: as the press secretary of the KGB of Belarus said, in March 2016, Yuri was detained on suspicion of fraud, tax evasion, an attempt to transfer all his capital abroad. According to some reports, an arrest order was received from the very top - from the head of state.
