Magnit, Russia’s largest food retailer by market value, said December sales increased 35 percent because of new store openings and an increase in the average amount spent by each customer.
Sales were 51.8 billion rubles ($1.7 billion), the Krasnodar, Russia-based company said in a regulatory filing. Full-year revenue rose 34 percent to 448 billion rubles, outpacing a Russian retail market that grew 6 percent in the year through November, according to the state’s statistics service.
Magnit said it opened 407 stores in December, bringing its total to 6,884. The monthly increase is the biggest in the fast- growing company’s history, according to analysts at VTB Capital. Two-thirds of its shops are in small cities with a population of less than 500,000 as the company expands into under-developed parts of the Russian regions, the retailer said.
Source: www.freshplaza.com