AB “Vilniaus degtinė” sales income for January - March 2009, if compared with the same period last year decreased by 17,1 percent. Sales income for January - March 2009 constituted 11 135 881 LTL (3 225 174 EUR), and for the period January - March 2008 - 13 431 713 LTL (3 890 093 EUR). During the period January - March 2009, AB “Vilniaus degtinė“ sold 1 261,7 thousand litres of alcohol drinks, which is 36,6 percent less than during the same period last year, when 1 988,9 thousand litres of drinks were sold. For 2009 I Q the company suffered losses for the sum of 848 227 LTL (245 664 EUR) before tax (in 2008 earned 449 155 LTL (130 084 EUR) profit before tax). The main factor influencing decrease in sales and loss from activity is the increase of excise duty tax for strong alcohol drinks for Lithuania for the second year in the row and increased volumes of illegal alcohol sales in „grey“ market due to these. The biggest share of the loss constituted redundancy payments, compensation for unused vacations with social security tax included into personnel costs for the employees who left the company. In total this constituted 828 692 LTL (240 006 EUR). Implementing its strategic goals AB “Vilniaus degtinė” invested 2,4 mln. litas into modernization and improvement of production processes and the quality of its products. The company installed new platinum filtering equipment and modernized alcohol rectification process. This year for the following modernization steps, the company plans to allocate additional 0,5 million litas. AB “Vilniaus degtinė” produces alcohol in the owned “Obeliai spirits distillery”, which is the only one in producing alcohol in Lithuania from the Lithuanian grain. Last year AB „Vilniaus degtinė“earned 1 820 828 LTL (527 348 EUR) profit before tax. Renaldas Barauskas Deputy CEO (370 5) 2335638 Audra Jauniškienė Finance and Administration Director (+370 5) 213 3152