Author Archives: CrispConsulting

Russia’s largest fruit importer declared bankrupt

Written by

The Joint Fruit Company, JFC, – Russia’s largest importer of fruits, has filed for bankruptcy. The situation has come about as a result of the Arab Spring.

An official from the company said that the company had made losses as the events in the Middle East and North Africa had disrupted business relationships, caused loan defaults and lead to the bankruptcy of some of the organisation’s foreign partners.

A source close to the JFC co-owner told the Vedomosti business daily that JFC Head Vladimir Kekhman filed the company’s bankruptcy in case the firm would not be able to restructure its loans.

Established in St. Petersburg in 1994, the JFC Group is the international network that manufactures ships and distributes fruits. It owns about 3,000 hectares of banana plantations in Ecuador and Costa-Rica.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Wal-Mart sees promise in Russia, X5 denies deal

Written by

U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart, which has flirted with entering Russia for years, still sees promise in the vast country, and will continue to look for the right opportunity, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Its comment followed a report in St Petersburg-based Russian magazine “Delovoi Peterburg” that it is in talks to buy the Karusel hypermarket chain from X5, Russia’s top food retailer by sales. The report said that a deal may be announced in around two weeks.

Analysts estimated such a deal could be worth $2 billion. An X5 spokeswoman said: “We deny these reports categorically.”

Wal-Mart has looked at Russia for years but appeared to have given up in December 2010 when it closed its Moscow office due to a lack of acquisition opportunities.

It reawakened speculation it was still interested in Russia when it hired Lev Khasis, the former head of X5, as a senior vice president in September 2011.

A research report by analysts at Uralsib said X5 could ask around $2 billion for the hypermarkets which “would provide quick entry to Russia for Walmart.”

Source: www.reuters.com

Up to 70% of harvest lost as billions of rubles damage caused by cold

Written by

Russian agricultural officials are expecting adverse effects on this year’s harvest after weather colder than usual.

For example, in Saratov Kray, which has experienced temperatures as low as -35°C, only half the grapevines are protected by earthen barriers.

In Krasnodar Kray, located on the Black and Azov seas, temperatures have dropped in some places to -31°C and have been accompanied by strong winds. 10-30% harvest reduction is expected as a result.

In Astrakhan, north of the Caspian Sea, officials say as much as 70% of fruit from orchards may be lost this year.

Russian agricultural officials concede there will be substantial damage to this year’s fruit crop. They said damage to fruits such as strawberries that grow low to the ground will be minimal and that orchards in northern areas of Russia would not be affected, since they grow in areas where temperatures of -30°C or -35°C are common.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

7-Eleven to enter Russian retail market

Written by

One of the world’s largest franchise chains 7-eleven is entering the Russian market. As per experts’ opinion, the company is likely to find a partner among local retail operators or sell their master-license. Among the candidates for development on the Russian market – X5 Retail group and Metro.

7-Eleven Inc. belongs to Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd which is part of Seven & I Holdings Co., Ltd. The first shops were opened in 1927 in the USA, and in 1950-s there were already 100 shops. Today the company is operating 40,000 shops, the majority is concentrated in Japan.

Source: www.retail.ru

Finnish Kesko to open K-Citymarket in St. Petersburg

Written by

Last year the Finnish Group Kesko announced the intention to open 4 hypermarkets in St. Petersburg and the Moscow Region in the next 2 years. The land plot for the construction has already been chosen. Kesko Food is planning to reach 500 mln Euro net sales by 2015. Kesko Group is operating about 2,000 clothes, food and construction materials stores in Scandinavia, the Baltic states, Russia and Belarus.

Source: www.retail.ru

Lenta to expand in the regions

Written by

In 2012 Lenta, based in St. Petersburg, is planning to open 1-2 hypermarket in Novosibirsk, one in Omsk, Barnaul, Surgut,  Tcheboksary, Ufa, Volgograd and Novorossiysk.

At the moment the company is operating 42 stores in 22 Russian cities: 14 in St. Petersburg, 5 – in Novosibirsk, 2 in Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnodar and Omsk, one in Tyumen, Astrakhan, Volgograd, Barnaul, Novorossiysk, Rostov-Don and others.

Source: www.retail.ru

X5 Retail Group predicts growth slow down

Written by

Russia’s biggest food retailer in terms of sales, the X5 Retail Group, anticipates a slow down in top line growth this year, from 32% down to 15-20%.

“Obviously X5’s growth has slowed down naturally and it is understandable given the size of the company… The kind of 30 to 40% growth that we did historically won’t be in place any further,” Chief Executive, Andrei Gusev said.

X5 this month posted its first drop in quarterly underlying sales since its creation in 2006 and missed its full-year 2011 revenue growth forecast, sending its stock down 10%.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

The Federal Purchasing Alliance to increase direct import of fruit and vegetables.

Written by

The Federal Purchasing Alliance JSC “System “Т3С” announced that the direct import program of fruit and vegetables from the foreign suppliers, which was launched in June 2011, allowed to increase the turnover volume by 117% for 7 months. As of today 33 out of 40 retail chains – members of The Federal Purchasing Alliance take part in the program. Decrease of the purchasing price for retail chains (in comparison to the local distributors) is 12% to 90% (depending on local market conditions). The Federal Purchasing Alliance cooperates with suppliers from Serbia, Poland, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

In 2012 the Alliance is planning to expand the range of directly imported goods and engage new retailers. The company will be importing all top fruit and vegetables from Poland, Serbia, Italy, Germany, Spain, Turkey, Holland, Israel and Egypt.

Source: www.retail.ru

Frosts hit fruit and vegetable trade in Russia and Ukraine

Written by

Significant fall of temperature caused delays in deliveries of fruits and vegetables to Russian and Ukrainian retail chains. Trade in outdoor markets is almost fully paralyzed.

Supermarkets’ fruit and vegetable managers reported to Fruit-Inform of serious stoppages in deliveries of fruits and vegetables as well as of higher rejects percentage in lots due to produce having been damaged by frosts during transportation.

For the present, disruption of trade has not led to any price imbalance in the market. Nevertheless, some representatives of supermarket chains think that produce prices may grow by 5-10% by early February. However, managers are sure that even if an increase in prices is registered, produce will be growing in price only for a short period of time. When a thaw sets in, the supply of vegetables will increase, and prices will sink again.

Source: www.freshplaza.com

Russia expected to import more citrus from FSU countries in 2012

Written by

According to www.rg.ru, Russia imported about 1.4 million tonnes of citrus fruits last year that is almost 10% higher year-on-year. The share of FSU countries (former Soviet republics) in Russia’s total citrus imports decreased to 10% in 2011, while a year earlier their share amounted to 14%. The experts say that last season’s climatic peculiarities caused a reduction of Russia’s citrus imports from Abkhazia, Azerbaijan and Central Asia; however, the situation will cardinally change in 2012.

Georgian produce will be exported by 4 companies. Russia’s total citrus imports from Georgia may reach 55,000 tonnes per annum (mandarins will account for up to 65% of them, lemons – for 20%). Georgian authorities plan to hold talks on export recommencement with Gennadiy Onishchenko, Chief Sanitary Officer of Russia.

In the meantime, Abkhazia almost halved its citrus exports to the Russian Federation to about 8,000 tonnes (80% – mandarins) in 2011. A sharp decrease in exports was caused by low citrus production in the country. In 2012, Abkhazia plans to export no less than 10,000 tonnes of citrus fruits to Russia.

Azerbaijan expects to increase its citrus exports to the Russian Federation by more than 30% to 14-16 thousand tonnes this year.

Source: www.lol.org.ua