Most leading retail companies have already announced their plans for the current year. Magnit presented the most ambitious program of the development. Initially, the retailer planned to open 1,100 convenience stores, 80 hypermarkets and Magnit Semejnij stores and 300-350 cosmetic stores, now they are planning to launch 1,200, 90 and 800 stores respectively.
Auchan plans to open 7-8 stores, investing 10 billion rubles into the development of business in Russia this year. Metro Cash & Carry is going to open the same amount of stores this year as they did the last year (in 2014 they opened seven stores). Neither Metro nor Auchan have not change the plan of developmet for the year.
Lenta is going to launch at least 10 hypermarkets during the first half of 2015 . This is more than in the first half of last year, when the company opened five hypermarkets and four supermarkets. Their plan to double the retail space in three years (from the end of 2013 to the end of 2016) remains in force.
Dixy did not report that their development plans would change this year. Last year, in November, Ilya Yakubson, Dixie president, spoke about the opening about 500 stores in 2015.
In the end of the last year, Tony Maher, head of Okey company, spoke of plans to open more than 12 hypermarkets and to launch new project – about 40 discounters “Da!” in 2015. The start was scheduled for the spring. For this projects the retailer was going to use debt funds in the amount of 8 billion rubles. Today, the retailer intends to continue developing, but at a pace that “would be sustainable for the business and does not require significant new credits at the current rates,” – as it was stated in the report on the results of 2014.
The only company who has not announced its development plans for the year is X5 Retail Group.