Magnit

Russian Retail Market 2016

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In 2016, large retail chains grew: Russia’s largest retailers Magnit and X5 Retail Group each opened about 2,000 new stores. Some smaller chains, such as Novosibirsk grocery chain Avoska, Petersburg chain of farm products Girlanda and others, left the market.

A number of companies changed the top management. Alexander Barsukov was appointed a new CEO of Tander (Magnit). Sergei Belyakov replaced Elijah Yakubson as a new president of Dixi retailer, but then a few months later he was replaced by Pedro Manuel Pereira da Silva.

There are reports that Vernij retail chain is selling some of its stores. Although the company denies it, it turned out that a few shops were actually sold to X5 Retail Group.

Meanwhile, retailers explored new markets. For example, many federal companies were interested in opening stores in Grozny, and in February 2016 Lenta retailer opened the first supermarket in the Chechen Republic.

Globus announced that it was going to invest 9 billion rubles in the construction of a retail park near Moscow. Estimated construction period is 2015 – 2020.

Metro Cash&Carry presented a new concept of shops Fasol Express, located at gas stations. The company plans to double the amount of stores every year.

Finnish company Stockmann is leaving the Russian market and closing ten Lindex stores. According to company estimates, the losses amounted to about 78 million euros. Executive Director of the Stockmann was going to resign after the sale of the business in Russia.

In June, Igor Shekhterman, Executive Director of X5 Retail Group, told about the plans of chain development: two most important regions for X5 are Siberia, where it is planned to open 150 stores over the next two years, and South Russia . The first stores are located in Novosibirsk in the stores, previously belonged to Avoska, which was forced to withdraw from the market. The network consisted of 12 stores.

In order to start supplying products to new regions X5 will build new distribution centers. “We have opened 35 distribution centers so far, and we are planning to open around 27 more in five years” – said X5 Retail Group CEO.

In September, premium retail chain Azbuka Vkusa launched a project of biometric payments, now customers can pay by placing a finger on the scanner.

In September, Forbes magazine published the rating of the largest private companies in Russia. Magnit took the first place, followed by X5 Retail Group.

In late October, Kesko Food Russia Holding announced that it would sell 11 K-Ruoka stores in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region to Lenta retailer for 11 billion rubles.

Auchan announced that Atak stores would be rebranded into Auchan store in the next 1,5 year. Also, Auchan in Moscow intends to build the largest distribution center in Europe. The venue will strengthen the retailer’s position in the Central region. In 2017, Auchan plans to increase its investment by almost half – up to 30 billion rubles.

Okey owners, Dmitry Korzhev, Dmitry Troitsky and Boris Volchek, who owned 78.97% of the company, decided to sell their shares. Among the main buyers there are Auchan, Lenta and, according to unconfirmed reports, Magnit.

In December, one of the leading Russian retailer Dixie bought 12 stores from 7th Continent.

www.retail.ru

St. Petersburg Arbitration Court allowed to sell banned products

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The Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region allowed to sell products banned by the Russian counter-sanctions.

“The government restricted import of certain products, not their sale. According to this, the restriction on sales of dairy products, including cheese, is not enshrined in law”, – judge Sinitsyna decided.

The Court considered the appeal of JSC “Tander” (Magnit retail chain), as in one in the stores cheese, produced in France, was found. “Tander” had to pay the fine for illegal sale of goods, free sale of which is prohibited or restricted. However, the court decided that the ban on the importation of goods is not equal to the ban on the sale of these products.

www.ria.ru

Retail development in 2015

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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.

www.retailer.ru

X5 Retail Group’s revenue increased by 18.6%

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In 2014, one of the largest retailers in Russia, X5 Retail Group, increased its revenue by 18.6% up to 631.93$ billion rubles. In the fourth quarter of the last year, revenue growth was 20.8%. According to the company report, in October-December X5 retail networks “Pyaterochka”, “Karusel”, “Perekrestok”, “Express” and online retailer E5.RU gained 181.23 billion rubles.

“Pyaterochka” showed the highest revenue growth, it increased by a quarter – from 348.39 billion rubles up to 435.82 billion rubles. At the same time, in chains “Perekrestok” and “Karusel” the outflow of customers traffic could be seen.

The worst was the result of online retailer E5.RU – its revenue for the year fell by more than a third, from 1.431 billion rubles to 950 million rubles. And as X5 could not find a partner for this project or sell it, they had to close it in January 2015.

In 2014, the amount of an average receipt in X5 retail chains increased by 7.7% – from 317.6 rubles to 342.2 rubles. The number of purchases increased by 10.2% – up to 2.114 billion purchases.

Earlier, the retailer “Magnit” reported that in 2014 its ruble revenues increased by 31.61% and reached the level of 762.72 billion rubles.

X5 Retail Group operates several retail chains: discounter “Pyaterochka”, supermarkets  “Perekrestok”, hypermarkets “Karusel”, stores “Express” (“Perekrestok Express” and “Kopeika”).

On December 31, 2014 there were 5,483 stores, including 4,789 stores “Pyaterochka”, 403 supermarkets “Perekrestok”, 82 hypermarkets “Karusel” and 209 stores “Express”. In 2014, the number of discounters “Pyaterochka” increased by 907 stores (+ 23.4%), the number of supermarkets “Perekrestok” has increased by 13 stores (+ 3.3%) and the number of stores “Express” – by 20 stores (10,6%). In 2014, the X5 closed 46 stores “Pyaterochka”, 22 stores “Perekrestok”, two stores “Karusel” and 45 stores “Express”, the results of which were not  as good as it had been expected. Also, the company sold 12 supermarkets “Perekrestok” in Ukraine.

www.top.rbc.ru

Russian retail chains showing growth

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Global ratings agency Fitch Ratings has said that Russian food retail chains continue to demonstrate healthy sales growth, despite the food import ban imposed in August against the EU, US and certain other countries.

Most Russian food retailers analysed by Fitch Ratings have managed to adapt to the food import sanction by substituting the imported categories with food from other countries, keeping the mix of food products on the shelves little changed.

Based on financial results by Russia’s three large public food retailers – Magnit, X5 Retail Group, O’Key Group – operating margins are unaffected for now as retailers have been able to pass on the increased costs of some products to customers without altering the product mix materially.

Increasing prices for some food categories (fish, dairy products, fruits and vegetables) as a result of the food import ban are likely to cause customers to seek out lower price substitutes and, in turn, lower sales of non-essentials. These trends are also likely to be reinforced by the overall subdued consumer sentiment in Russia, Fitch said.

The latest quarterly results show LFL revenue growth ranging from nine per cent year-on-year for Lenta Group to 17 per cent year-on-year for Magnit, driven by strong average ticket and traffic growth. Larger store formats, such as hypermarkets and supermarkets, posted slower sales growth in September 2014 compared with smaller formats, as they witnessed some customers trading down to cheaper products and, in some chains, low or even negative traffic growth, Fitch Ratings said.

www.esmmagazine.com

Russian retailer Magnit to open agricultural distribution centre in Penza region

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Distribution centre of agricultural products is planned to be built in the Penza region. The total area of the centre will reach 40 thousand square metres. The investment for the project (i.e. 29 million Euro) is said to be provided by the JSC Tander, a management company of the retail network Magnit.

The centre is believed to improve the logistics system, and to supply the stores of the network with local goods, – said the Chairman of Penza Government Vyacheslav Orel.

Daily turnover of potatoes, vegetables and fruit is estimated at 70 million rubles (1.4 million Euro), the delivery radius is 200 – 400 km. The distribution centre will create about 1500 job positions.

According to the Minister of Agriculture in Penza region Andrey Burlakov, over the past few years the regional agriculture has demonstrated a dynamic growth of production. Moreover, retail chains in the region are keen to sign the contracts for the supply of local products to their stores.

www.freshplaza.com

New Magnit hypermarket in Russia

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Russia’s largest food retailer Magnit announced the opening of its 174th hypermarket in Russia. The new store is located in Samara, the Volga region.

The range of goods of the hypermarket consists of 19400 items, with food accounting for about 65% of the range. Trading space is equipped with 25 cashiers. Commercial property is owned by the Company.

As of October 1, 2014 the network Magnit has 7891 convenience stores, 174 hypermarkets, 66 Magnit Family shops and 886 drogeries, located in more than 1950 territorial subjects of the Russian Federation.

www.freshplaza.com, www.magnit-info.ru

Magnit fined $581 for endangering consumer health

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Administrative sanctions have been brought against the Magnit supermarket chain, which is owned by Tander, for numerous violations threatening the health of consumers. Charges brought against the company for violations of sanitary regulations were found to be justified by the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, Fonatank.ru reported on June 14.

Supermarkets in the Magnit chain were inspected in Autumn 2013 according to a schedule agreed upon by prosecutors. Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being inspectors in St. Petersburg found evidence that the chain was selling substandard product, including rotten cucumbers and fish. An examination of cranberries sold by Magnit revealed the presence of cesium-137 in levels of up to 320 becquerels per kilogram.

The company denies the charges. The director of the St. Petersburg branch of Tander Vladimir Dubinin argued that most of the health department violations had not been documented. He rejected the findings of the supervisory authority on the sale of substandard product. “The official documents do not conform to current legislation,” Dubinin told Fontanka.ru.

www.freshplaza.com

Magnit and Lenta conquering Siberia

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Magnit and Lenta, along with a local chain, Holiday Klassik, will be the key retailers in the region in the future. Their market penetration in the region will grow faster than those like X5 and Auchan, while product availability on their shelves may become better thanks to the investment into distribution centres.

Russia’s leading market player Magnit, which has operated a distribution centre in Omsk since 2012, recently launched a 19,000 square metre leased distribution centre in Novosibirsk. Investment in logistics facilities clearly shows retailers’ focus on the store expansion in Siberia. Magnit opened its first store in Siberia in 2010 and expand the network to 120 by the end of 2013.

St Peterburg based Lenta opened its first hypermarket in Siberia in 2006 and since then it has opened 17 large outlets. In addition to that it opened a 37,500 sq m distribution centre in Novosibirsk last year. The retailer recently opened its first hypermarket in Krasnoyarsk and it is building its sixth store in Novosibirsk while a new store is planned for Novokuznetsk.

Auchan operates two Auchan hypermarkets and two Auchan City compact hypermarkets, X5 runs 25 small stores and one hypermarket while O’Key has five hypermarkets and one supermarket. In contrast to them Dixy Group and Rewe Group have not penetrated the region yet.

www.freshplaza.com

“Green” retailers

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Greenpeace made an annual rating called “Green supermarket” where Russian retailers are rated by the level of contribution in recycling problem solvation. First places were taken by “Auchan” and “Dixy”.

Experts were comparing and estimating 10 biggest supermarket networks – “Auchan”, “Dixy”, Х5 Retail Group, “Lenta”, “O’kay”, “Magnit”, “Holiday classic”, “Maria Ra”, “Sedmoy Continent” , and “Monyetka”. These retailers were estimated by 20 criteria such as receiving packaging for further recycling, reduction of packaging, a possibility of using own packaging for catchweight goods, a presence of goods with ecofriendly packaging.

“Auchan” took the first place due to the opening recycling centers in St. Petersburg and the possibility of buying catchweight goods. “Dixy” was also pointed out because of the presence of recycling centers in Moscow and the sale of original non-disposable bags.

“O’kay”, “Sedmoy Continent”, and “Monyetka” are turned to be at the end of the rating list.

“Unfortunately, even leaders of our list are far from being “green” retailers. However, most of them are changing their policy: refusing from free plastic bags, letting do weighting of fruit and vegetables without packaging, and even opening recycling centers. Directors of stores understand that such actions are attracting attention of new clients and making their stores more competitive on the market,” – Rashid Alimov, a coordinator of “Greenpeace Toxic Program”, said.

www.retailer.ru