Russian retail market

Magnit Named One of Europe’s 50 Most Valuable Brands

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Magnit, Russia’s largest food retailer, has been named one of the 50 most valuable brands in Europe.

The brand is worth $272 million, placing it 44th on the list just after The Body Shop and before such retailers as department store Debenhams and mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse, according to the report Best Retail Brands 2014 by brand consultancy Interbrand.

Magnit’s earnings rose 26 percent in 2013 to $18.2 billion with a net profit of $1.1 billion. By comparison, the company’s primary competitor X5 Retail Group, owner of supermarket chains Pyatyorochka, Perekryostok and Carousel, saw earnings of $16.8 billion and a net profit of $345 million.

Magnit had more than 8,000 stores across the country in late 2013, while X5 had about 4,500 locations.

Despite its strong position in the market, Magnit cut its full-year 2014 sales growth forecast from 25 percent down to between 22 and 24 percent to account for reduced consumer confidence stemming from Russia’s weak economic growth. The IMF has predicted that Russia’s gross domestic product will grow by a mere 1.4 percent in 2014, revised from an earlier forecast of 2 percent.

www.themoscowtimes.com

X5 Retail Group Q1 retail sales up 13.9%

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X5 Retail Group N.V., a Russian food retailer, reported first-quarter retail sales of RUR 143.90 billion; an increase of 13.9% from RUR 126.30 billion, previous year. Like for like sales improved 6.3% during the quarter.

X5 Retail Group N.V. operates several retail formats: the chain of economy class stores under the Pyaterochka brand, the supermarket chain under the Perekrestok brand, the hypermarket chain under the Karusel brand, Express convenience stores under various brands and the online retail channel under the E5.RU brand. At 31 March 2014, X5 had 4,618 company-operated stores.

www.freshplaza.com

Russia: imported product prices increase by 15-20%

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Higher School of Economics (HSE) warns about a soon price increase on imported goods as well as on goods produced with imported raw materials. All details are reflected in a report called “About business climate condition in retail sector in first quarter of 2014…”.

“Retailers are expecting a further weakening of ruble. Imported goods which were bought at earlier exchange rates hold out only few more months”, – Georgy Ostapkovich, the author of the report and the director of HSE Centre of Market research, explained his predictions in the interview to RBC Daily.

Retailers are now seeking for a possibility to substitute imported products to domestic ones to neutralize the price increase.
By HSE estimates, Russia is strongly depending on imports: in average 33% of goods sold through both networked and non-networked retailers are imported. Moreover, the share of imported goods is pretty stable during the last few years, as Georgy Ostapkovich added. That means the prices on goods which can’t be replaced by domestic equivalents will increase by the end of the second quarter of 2014.

Ruble has started to weaken since the middle of February 2014, but expected price increase has not been recorded by Rosstat yet. A main rule for suppliers is that a supplier must inform a retailer about release price increase in a period of 30 days.

In fact, the price raising is step by step overtaking retail networks. For example, in “Dixie” a price increase on foreign fruit and vegetables is about 10-25%, on dairy products – 7-15%, sugar – about 8%. Meat products suppliers are going to raise prices by 10% or even more.

In “O’kay” a general price increase of 15-20% is detected. Retail prices on fish have grown up by 20%, on chocolate and nuts – by about 15%. The price increase on dairy products is the same as in “Dixie” – about 15%.
Furthermore, release prices on non-food range of products are also rising by 10%. Especially prices on cloths (90% of imported items), household appliances (80% of imported items), sport goods, office supplies and toys (70 % of imported items) are growing up dramatically.

According to Rosstat, the inflation in March was 1%, since the beginning of 2014 – 2.3%.

www.newsru.com

Russia’s X5 Finalises Ukraine Exit

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One of Russia’s biggest retailers X5 Retail Group has finalised the sale of its Perekrestok supermarket operations in Ukraine, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The sale of the retailer’s Ukraine unit, X5 Group Ukraine, which accounts for less than 0.3% of total revenue is “consistent with the company’s strategy to focus on core retail activities within the Russian Federation,” it said in the statement. It did not disclose the value of the deal, or its buyer.

X5 is the first Russian company to pull out of the country since Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region that followed the overthrow of Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich.

Reuters have said that the deal had been in the works since October 2013, but the crisis over Crimea may have quickened the pace of talks.

Varus is buying the lease rights to 13 Perekryostok stores in and near Kiev, as well as in-store facilities and stock, Capital quoted Varus’s co-owner Ruslan Shostak as saying.

According to the 2013 financial report, X5 has 12 stores in Ukraine out of a total of 4,544 mostly across Russia.

www.freshplaza.com

Slowdown in Pyaterochka refurbishment process

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The X5 Retail Group, a prominent grocery retailer, has announced that the total number of Pyaterochkadiscounters to be refurbished this year will be less than previously planned. This is because the project has proven to be more challenging than the company had estimated.

The retailer had planned to revamp 1,100 stores in 2014 and to complete the refurbishment of the entire chain by the end of 2015. The average cost of reformatting one establishment is $360,000 (€259,000). In October 2013 X5 planned to spend between $160m and $440m (€115-317m) on this over 18 months.

At the end of last year, X5 was operating 4,544 stores in total. These included 3,822 Pyaterochka discounters, 390 Perekrestok supermarkets, 83 Karusel hypermarkets, and 189 differently branded express stores.

www.ceeretail.com

Metro IPO plans in doubt due to Ukraine crisis

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The stock valuation of German hypermarket chain Metro has taken a heavy hit over the past week, and the retailer’s plans to launch an initial-public-offering of its Russian unit has been thrown into doubt due to the fallout of the current situation in Ukraine.

Over the weekend, Metro shares fell by over 5% in early trading on the German mid-cap stock exchange to €28.50.

Metro had hoped to raise around €1 billion by selling 25% of its stake in its Russia cash-and-carry unit in a London listing but due to Russia’s involvement in the political chaos surrounding Ukraine, details of the group’s plans aren’t currently clear.

A Metro spokesperson said it would “monitor the situation in Ukraine closely” because market conditions need to be favourable in order to launch an IPO.

Metro planned to use the proceeds from the IPO to expand its cash-and-carry business in Russia, its most profitable unit and the country’s fourth-biggest retailer behind X5, Magnit (MGNTq.L) and French chain Auchan.

Metro operates 72 stores in Russia and achieved sales of 183 billion roubles in 2013.

www.freshplaza.com

31% increase in Lenta’s sales in 2013

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Lenta, one of the major Russian grocery retailers, increased its total sales by 31.3% year on year to RUB 144.3bn (€3.03bn) in 2013, according to the company’s IFRS financial report. At the same time, the LFL sales grew by 10%.

What is more, there was a 35% increase in the retail space of the Russian hypermarket retailer Lenta in 2013, and the company has become the most rapidly growing business in this arena among the largest grocery retailers in Russia.

At the end of last year Lenta’s retail space came to 508,000 m² and the company had 87 stores in total. The retailer has opened 31 stores, including 10 supermarkets in Moscow and the Moscow Province. It operates 77 hypermarkets in 45 cities in Russia.

Lenta’s main shareholders are the American investment fund TPG (49.8%), the EBRD (21.5%) and VTB Capital (11.7%). In early February the retailer announced that it intended to enter the London Stock Exchange and the Moscow Exchange by means of IPOs.

www.ceeretail.com

X5 revenue growth accelerates amid Russian retail slowdown

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X5 Retail Group NV posted the strongest quarterly sales growth in two years as it closed the gap on competitors including OAO Magnit and O’Key Group SA.

Fourth-quarter sales rose 12 percent to 150 billion rubles ($4.4 billion), benefiting from an improved product assortment and promotional activity, the Moscow-based grocer said today in a statement. That compares with growth of 6.6 percent in the previous three months.

The increase in sales beat the 8 percent estimate of VTB Capital, sending the shares up as much as 7.1 percent.

“This is surprising given that Magnit, O’Key and M.video reported a slowdown in fourth-quarter sales, citing weakening consumer spending,” VTB Capital analyst Ivan Kushch said.

While X5’s accelerating sales bucked the trend, the overall growth rate is still the weakest of its main rivals, according to Kushch. “We need to see if the company’s turnaround is sustainable,” he said. “Fourth-quarter growth was largely driven by promotional price declines, which may have hurt profits.”

Magnit, Russia’s biggest retailer, said this month that revenue rose almost 23 percent from a year earlier in December, less than November’s 29 percent growth. O’Key also reported weaker growth, while electronics retailer M.video said same-store sales declined in the fourth quarter.

X5 Retail shares rose 4.8 percent to $18.50 at 8:24 a.m. in London, where the stock has its main listing.

www.freshplaza.com

Metro to list 25% of Russian cash and carry

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Europe’s fourth biggest retailer, Germany’s Metro AG has confirmed speculation which surfaced in late 2013 that it is to list 25% of its Russian cash and carry business.

The retailer said yesterday that it plans to sell up to a quarter of its stake in the cash and carry unit in an initial public offering during the first half of this year on the London stock exchange.

Metro has been restructuring its large portfolio of cash and carries, supermarkets, department stores and electronics chains in order to cut debt and raise money.

www.freshplaza.com