to open a hypermarket in Saratov

The Moscow retail chain Perekrestok plans to enter the market of the Saratov region. Vladimir Ryzhkov, director of the Samara branch of the Perekrestok Trading House CJSC, told Kommersant yesterday. According to him, in the spring of 2005 the company will open the first hypermarket in the regional center, and in the future its stores will appear in other large cities of the region, in particular in Balakovo and Engels. According to experts, the arrival of a new player in the Saratov consumer market will have virtually no impact on the position of other market participants. CJSC Trading House Perekrestok is the operator of the supermarket chain of the same name with 74 stores in the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Tolyatti and Samara. Turnover in the first six months of 2004 amounted to $350 million. This chain took 4th place in the Kommersant rating of the largest retailers in Russia.
Let us recall that in the fall of 2003, the Perekrestok trading house opened its facilities in the Samara region, and in December - in Volgograd. Yesterday, Kommersant learned that no later than the spring of 2005, Perekrestok stores should appear in the Saratov region. The project of a trading house in Saratov will be implemented by the Samara division of the company. According to Vladimir Ryzhkov, director of the Samara branch of the Perekrestok trading house, the management of the trading house held meetings with a number of owners of retail space in Saratov. According to him, negotiations on concluding a lease agreement have not yet been completed, but it is already known that the hypermarket will be located in a popular shopping center in the Volzhsky district of Saratov, popularly known as the “Pentagon”. According to the director of the Samarsky branch, the area of the Saratov facility will be about 4 thousand square meters. m - approximately the same as in a Volgograd hypermarket. As Mr. Ryzhkov noted, investments in this project will amount to $4 - 4.5 million. According to him, in terms of the range of goods presented, the hypermarket in Saratov will be no different from similar supermarkets in neighboring regions. Of the 28 - 30 thousand items, at least a third will be related non-food products. Just like in other regions, Saratov's Perekrestok will have its own meat and fish processing plants and bakery.
According to Vladimir Ryzhkov, Perekrestok’s plans to develop the chain in the Saratov region are not limited to opening a hypermarket in the regional center. According to Kommersant's information, it is also planned to locate chain stores in large cities in the region, in particular in Engels and Balakovo. But Perekrestok is not yet talking about the details of these projects, citing the fact that “the work is still in the initial phase.”
As the Saratov administration told Kommersant, the leaders in both sales volumes and the number of outlets in the city are now the St. Petersburg retail chain Pyaterochka and the local one, V Yablochko. Their management did not comment yesterday on the arrival of a new player on the market. Meanwhile, the management of Perekrestok does not see them as competitors. “These networks have a different format,” explained Vladimir Ryzhkov, noting that almost all players present on the Saratov market operate in the discounter format.
“Perhaps some trading enterprises in nearby areas of the city will have to move a little, but the rest will not be affected by the arrival of Perekrestok,” commented the head of the trade department of the Saratov mayor’s office, Galina Egorova, on the arrival of a new player in the Saratov market, noting, however, that the opening she doesn’t know anything about the Perekrestok hypermarket in Saratov yet. According to her, the capacity of the Saratov retail market now allows new players to come to it. Perhaps the Patterson chain will be able to compete with Pyaterochka, the opening of stores in Saratov, according to Ms. Egorova, is also possible in the near future. By the way, Mr. Ryzhkov named this network among the main competitors of his company.
IGOR SVIRIZ

Kommersant (Volgograd) No. 220 dated November 24, 2004

Themes:

Activities of "Crossroads"

Perekrestok rents the Pentagon