It is not easy being a big fish in a small pond. Especially not if that pond is a little country which a much bigger rival next door who has a habit of spewing out black propaganda [1] without checking the facts first.

Controversial and sometimes even hated, Sheriff Ltd has been accused of running the country, of being a money laundering front, and even of being a personal fiefdom of the country's president and his family; Saddam Hussein style.

Take a look at Sheriff and the role that, for better or worse, it plays in Pridnestrovie.

Although not a monopoly, the Sheriff group holds the second largest market-share in terms of sales, and it is the leader in food and beverage sales in the republic. It is also one of the more controversial companies because it has concentrated all of its investments in Pridnestrovie and not in any of the neighboring countries. Those who are against Pridnestrovie's freedom and independence are also heavily critical of Sheriff, simply because it was one of the first and largest companies to show a strong investor confidence in the country and back the new, emerging economy with millions of dollars in investments.

Some of the improvements in infrastructure and quality of life can be traced back to the activities of one company, the Sheriff group, and its dedication to supporting the commercial reforms of Pridnestrovie. It came into existence in the nineties and was quick to benefit from the privatization legislation that began to take effect at the turn of the century. As the country's second largest company, Sheriff owns shops, petrol stations and a state of the art soccer stadium. [2]

Pro-Moldovan critics regularly name President Igor Smirnov’s [2] son as its CEO. In fact, its president is Viktor Gushan. Of Smirnov's two sons, only Oleg Smirnov has once had a minor-level position with Sheriff but has never held senior role in the company. Vladimir, the other son, has never had any connection to Sheriff whatsoever.

Further proof that Smirnov has nothing to do with the company comes from the fact that in the past couple of years the company has used its financial muscle to lobby for reform in Pridnestrovie — supporting an opposition party named "Renewal" [Array] in elections against the ruling party "Respublica" of president Igor Smirnov.

Through political donations and free airtime on the Sheriff company's privately-owned TV station, the business commmunity has lobbied for democratic reform with quite a degree of success: In the December 2005 parliamentary elections, Renewal-candidates garnered more votes than the government's own candidates. Two of the newly elected deputies to Parliament were employees of the Sheriff company: A company branch director named Ilya Kazmaly and vice president in human resources Ilona Tyuryaeva. Ilya Kazmaly was re-elected for the second term, running in Grigoriopol. The country's highest turnout was recorded on this district: 80% of the eligible voters showed up, 97% of whom voted for Ilya Kazmaly. Ilon Tyuryaeva was elected in Tiraspol with 71% of the votes cast.

Human rights groups see nothing wrong with that. As one British based organization puts it:
" - The businessman as politician is a ubiquitous figure across the former Soviet Union and is not unique to Renewal. Also, in such a small place there are few candidates for leading positions in society."

When a company, any company, consistently keeps investing its profits back into country it will sooner or later obtain a larger market share than those companies who don't follow such a re-investment strategy. This is normal and it happens all over the world. In Pridnestrovie, the Sheriff Group has grown its market share by using precisely this strategy — but any company with a strong belief in the future of the country can do the same. All it takes to grow a business is a strategy of hard work and a willingness to invest the profits back into new growth within the nation itself.

Although large in its home market, Sheriff is by no means a monopoly. In every single market segment it faces local or foreign competitors. The only "business" where it has no competition is on the soccer field — and that is simply because FC Sheriff's players are hard to beat!

In one of its dominant markets, gas stations, Sheriff faces stiff competition [2] from several other chains; especially Green [2] which is competing heavily on both price and service. Emulating Sheriff's winning formula, the company has recently expanded into building its own competing supermarkets, [2] too.

Sheriff was founded in 1992. Today, approximately 2,000 workers are employed directly by the company. Total number of employees in affiliated companies and sister companies in the group are around 3,000. Sheriff deals with companies in Ukraine, Russia, Estonia, Germany, the USA, Poland, Hungary, Holland, Argentina, Brazil, and Spain. It has built large, modern supermarkets all over the country. It also owns a private TV station, TVS, and a cable TV network, the fiber-optic Multichannel system. It is part of a cellphone company and an Internet provider. Recently, it added car sales to its businesses: It now owns the country's Mitsubishi and Mercedes-Benz car dealerships. It's biggest project, however, is the Tiraspol stadium [2], the world class facility with a large arena, training fields, and a five star hotel on the premises.

This project started in the company as a dream among the soccer-mad employees and owners of Sheriff. Wanting to give something back to Pridnestrovie, they decided to build a world class soccer stadium on the outskirts of Tiraspol. On the face of its, there's really not very much to criticize: A company invests its profits back into the country, and we all get to benefit. As one mid level Sheriff-employee said: " - There's nothing wrong with that..."

WHAT'S RELATED: Up close and personal: Sheriff FC's new stadium [2] A "Sheriff" supermarket [2] Factory of lies: Moldova's black ops [3] more... [4]

EXTERNAL LINKS: Sheriff's corporate website [5] Sheriff FC (soccer team) [6] Tiraspol Sports Complex [7]