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
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 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
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
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
Russian retailer, Agro Trade, is looking to build a chain of retail stores in Florida, with the backing of a Dutch investor. The company is looking into a potential 400 stores to create a projected $1 billion of sales within four years.
The scheme would be backed by a Dutch investment to the tune of $500 million, from the same firm that backed Russia’s X5 Retail Group. Andrei Rogachyov, who founded those chains and remains an investor in X5, is separately heading AgroTrade International, according to a report in the Moscow Times newspaper.
It is not clear what branding Agro Trade would seek to use in its new stores, though it is expected they will begin trading this year from around 60 outlets.
Source: www.freshplaza.com
The Austrian supermarket chain Billa have requested permission from the Russian competition authority to take over the supermarket chain Citystore. Although Citystore is specialized in the food trade the chain is run by the Turkish building company Enka Insaat.
Enka took over the chain in 2007. At that stage the chain controlled ten shopping centres and 52 supermarkets in various Russian towns. Enka had from the beginning plans to sell the supermarket chain. Some supermarkets were already rented to the French chain Auchan in the meantime. Other shops in the region had to be closed during the crisis.
Citystore still have 17 supermarkets in Moscow, of which seven are their own and ten have been rented out on long leases.
Source: www.freshplaza.com
In 2011 retail operator Okey added 14 stores to its chain – 7 hypermarkets and 7 supermarkets, the opening of 4 hypermarkets was postponed till 2012. One in Voronezh was opened on 5 January 2012, hypermarkets in Ufa and Tyumen will be launched in January-February, till the end of Q2 2012 a store in Moscow will be opened. Apart from that the retailer is planning to open 13 more stores till the end of 2012.
Source: www.retail.ru
The Bonduelle Group has today announced the conclusion of negotiations regarding the acquisition of the agro-industrial and commercial assets of French co-operative CECAB in Russia and in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This acquisition, which has already been planned in October, should take effect in Q1 2012 for the start of the sowing season thus assuring the 2012 harvest. It is however still subject to the agreement of the Russian competition authorities.
Source: www.freshplaza.com
Billa, the Central European arm of German retail giant Rewe, wants to take over Russian supermarket chain Citystore. Moscow-based Citystore confirmed talks with Billa were being held.
In addition, Russia’s competition regulator, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, confirmed that Billa has requested approval to take over the chain. Experts in Russian media estimate the value of the deal at US$70-100m.
Citystore is owned by Turkish conglomerate Enka and consists of 17 supermarkets, all of which are based in Moscow or the region of Moscow.
Billa entered the Russian market in 2004 and operates 72 supermarkets, the lion share of which are also located in the Russian capital.
Source: www.just-food.com