Market News

Auchan to Launch Drive Stores in Russia

Written by

France’s Auchan hypermarket chain plans to launch its first Auchan Drive outlet in Moscow next year, where customers can pick up goods ordered on-line, Auchan Russia General Director Jean-Pierre Germain said on Tuesday.

The retailer is searching for a site of about 3,000 square meters for the store, Germain told reporters at a news conference on the tenth anniversary of the company’s activities in Russia.

Auchan also plans to open its first electronics store in Russia in September 2012. Customers will be also be able to order electronic goods on-line and pick them up in the Moscow-based outlet, which is likely to be named Electrodiscount.

Germain declined to specify any other details about the electronic goods store to Prime news agency.

The French retail giant, established in 1961, entered the Russian market in 2002. Auchan now manages 52 retail outlets in Russia and plans to increase the number of its stores to 150 to 2015-2017, Auchan Chairman Vianney Mulliez said.

The retailer has invested over 50 billion rubles ($1.6 billion) in its Russian business in the past ten years, Mulliez added.

Source: www.en.rian.ru

Binding port state crab control treaty to be signed between Russia and Japan

Written by

Russia is on the verge of taking another major step to control crab poaching, which is still two to three times the legal limit according to Hokkaido crab dealers. A treaty will be signed in September between Russia and Japan requiring separately transmitted documents from Russian officials for every crab landing in Japan. In the past, these measures have been effective when enforced by the Port state – in this case, Japan. Overall crab quotas in the Russian Far East are 46,000 tons, of which most is snow crab.

Another dispute involving Russia and Norway is building with the arrest of Russian vessels operating near Svalbard. Some Russian officials are threatening to retaliate with another ban on Norwegian seafood imports.

Source: www.seafoodnews.com

Auchan global plans

Written by

By 2015-2017 the retail company Auchan Russia plans to increase the number of retail outlets up to 150 through the country. On 28 August it was reported by Vianney Mullen, president of the board of the French group Auchan; the press-conference was held in Moscow, at the 10th anniversary of the first Auchan supermarket in Russia.

There will be all the formats of Auchan – hypermarkets Auchan, hypermarkets Auchan City, Auchan Sad, Nasha Raduga (in cities with population less than 500 000 people).

French retailer Auchan has been on the Russian market since 2002. In the beginning of 2012 there were 36 hypermarkets Auchan, 14 Auchan City, 4 Auchan Sad, 2 hypermarkets Nasha Raduga.

Trade group Auchan was founded in 1961 by Gerard Myule, it consists of more than 1,300 stores in 12 countries.

Source: www.retailer.ru

Since January consumer prices in Russia have grown 5 times more compared to Europe

Written by

For the first half of this year, consumer prices in Russia have grown by 4.5%. On the average, in the EU consumer prices have increased by 0.9% for the same period.

In the U.S., Canada and Turkey, consumer prices have grown by 2%, in the Republic of Korea by 0.7%, and in Norway the deflation rate was 0.4%. The only country, where the inflation rate was higher than in Russia is Belarus, the inflation rate there  is 12% for the period.

According to the Federal State Statistics Service of Russian Federation, the inflation rate of the food segment was one of the highest of all the other sectors in Russia: food prices rose by 5.9% in Russia, in the EU – by 1.6%.

And although price growth for vegetables decreased more than twice, it was still quite high – 8%.

Prices for fruits in Russia fell by 2% in August, in the EU decline in prices for the same period was 3.5%.

Source: www.fruitnews.ru

Customs union reduces tariffs for some products

Written by

23 August new import customs duties were introduced, they were changed because of Russia’s accession to the WTO. The first change concerns only 10% of tariffs – mostly duties on meat and dairy products, on fruit and vegetables, as well as cars.

Russia is one of the largest importers of apples and after accession to the WTO import duties on these fruits were significantly reduced. The duty on apples will be 0.06 euro per 1 kg. It will be applied for one year.

At the same time, Russia’s entry into the WTO will not change the import duty on pears, it will remain 10%. In 2015 it will be reduced by 5%.

Import duties on apricots, cherries, plums will remain 5%, and on strawberry – 10%. Also, the zero import duty on nectarines, peaches, kiwi will be kept.

Russia’s accession to the WTO will not change duties on bananas, they will remain 5%, but not less than 0.02 euro per 1 kg. The duty on orange , grapefruit and other citrus fruits will also remain the same – 5%, but not less than 0.02 euro per 1 kg, the same is for mandarins, clementines, and others (5%, but not less than 0.03 euro).

At the same time the duty on lemons and limes will decrease from 5%, but not less than 0.035 euro, up to 5%, but not less than 0.02 euro per 1 kg.

Source: www.retailer.ru

actualcomments.ru

Sergey Galitsky will spend € 350 million for vegetables

Written by

Sergey Galitsky, founder of the second largest Russian retail network “Magnit”, is planning to invest € 350 million in the agricultural development. He said that this is a key point to develop the network own agricultural production.

“We decided to grow local Kuban vegetables for our stores. Now we have the crop of cucumbers and tomatoes from 40 hectares, and for the next two years we plan to expand the area to 120 hectares”, – Sergey Galitsky said.

It will be one of the biggest agricultural complexes that produce vegetables in Europe.

The fact that “Magnit” would invest 8 billion rubles in the construction of the greenhouse complex to grow tomatoes and cucumbers in Dinsky district of Krasnodar region was reported in 2010. Then the experts believed that it would be difficult for the retail network to find consolidated suppliers of fresh vegetables which could supply all vegetables for the company.

Source: www.fruitnews.ru

X5 may not reach expected results

Written by

Sales growth of the biggest Russian retailer X5 Retail Group would not reach previously expected 15 per cent, Kieran Balfe, chief financial officer, warned investors on a conference call. Earlier Balfe said that the growth rate would be about 15 per cent for this year – but for the first half of the year X5 revenues rose by only 7.2 per cent.

The sales in hypermarkets fell by 14 percent in July. Net profit of the retailer fell by 6.2 percent to $ 68.9 million. EBITDA decreased by 1.6 percent to $ 280.3 million.

Despite the fact that the X5 Retail these results are still not bad, they do not seem so so good if compared to the indicators of the Magnet, X5 main competitor, according to VTB Capital analysts. Magnit EBITDA profitability reached 10.1 percent in the second quarter.

Source: www.retailer.ru

 

Russian Retail Sales Slow To 18-Month Low As Inflation Bites

Written by

Russian retail sales grew in July at the weakest pace in 18 months after faster inflation curbed consumer purchasing power, threatening to undercut a mainstay of the country’s economic growth this year.

Receipts at merchants rose 5.1 percent from a year earlier, slowing from June’s 6.9 percent to the weakest pace since January 2011, the Federal Statistics Service in Moscow said in an e-mailed statement today. That missed all 15 estimates in a Bloomberg survey, which forecast 6.2 percent growth.

Russian real wages grew 10.2 percent in July from a year earlier, the service said. That matched the downwardly revised figure for a month earlier and missed economist forecast for 11.2 percent growth. Retail sales from a month earlier advanced 1.6 percent, also missing the median estimate of 2.6 percent.

“The softening in retail sales was to a large extent concentrated in food sales, likely a consequence of rising food inflation,” Vladimir Kolychev, head of research at Societe Generale SA’s OAO Rosbank (ROSB) unit in Moscow, said by e-mail. The expansion in non-food categories was “still robust” at 8.6 percent, he said.

Unemployment remained at 5.4 percent for a third month, the lowest level since at least 1999. Economists had forecast an increase to 5.5 percent, according to the median of 11 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

“The steady unemployment rate is the only bright spot in the data, generally suggesting that domestic demand is clearly losing steam,” Dmitry Polevoy, chief economist at ING Groep NV in Moscow, said in a note. “With food inflation clearly accelerating, real wage growth easing and retail lending also losing steam, both food and non-food retail sales are set to weaken further in the second half.”

Source: www.bloomberg.com

Russian Fish Processing To Adopt International Quality Standards

Written by

Expected Russia’s joining the WTO cannot but affect its fishing industry. However, this will not force any significant changes into operation of coastal fishing companies, since they deliver their whole catch to domestic ports for its further processing or sale in domestic market. But for those Russian fishing companies that export their products to European countries the changes associated with entry into the WTO are crucial, and they shall prepare themselves to many new things.

It’s claimed that joining the WTO will enable Russian fishing companies to trade their products on equal terms with other EU countries. But the problem is that there are concerns related to lower competitiveness of domestic fish products since not all Russian products meet high European standards. Closely working with Russian fish suppliers that have relevant European certificates, I know that at many other enterprises certain EU regulations are not met. Many companies are not ready to introduce and adopt international standards, so it will take some time till they will be allowed to enter the European market with their products.

It is also worth noting that in order to gain from joining the WTO, Russian enterprises should increase volumes of deeply processed products, which will provide the biggest added value.

Source: www.superocean.net