In January-June 2021, the Auchan and Metro hypermarket chains left the top ten Russian retailers, where they occupied the last two places. According to analysts, Auchan's revenue fell by 2% year-on-year to RUB 17,3 billion, Metro's revenue remained at RUB 99,1 billion. Now the ninth place in the Infoline rating is taken by Ozon with a turnover of 96,1 billion rubles. (excluding VAT), and the tenth line is the Svetofor discounter chain with revenues of 141,9 billion rubles.
The revenue of the operating company LLC Auchan has been declining for five years in a row: in 2020 the figure was 223,16 billion rubles, which is 12,2% lower than a year earlier. In addition, the company continues to optimize the network. Since the beginning of 2021, 17 outlets have been closed, now Auchan includes 238 stores, including 95 hypermarkets and 143 supermarkets. Auchan has not kept pace with the growth of its competitors in recent years.
Ivan Martinovich, general director of the Auchan chain in Russia, said that this year the company's revenues are growing by 3%, EBITDA - by 66%, and like-for-like sales (LfL) - by 5% yoy. According to him, Auchan is investing in customer service, digital solutions and will continue to develop in the Russian market.
Metro's business in Russia has also been under pressure for a long time. The revenue of Metro Cash & Carry LLC decreased from 2016 to 2019, last year it increased by 7,69%, to 224,01 billion rubles. Metro has managed to take a good position in the online channel, which already forms 10% of the network's turnover. Metro is not ready to comment on financial indicators before the official publication, but expects good sales dynamics by the end of the year. The results of the first half of the year for the chain are not indicative, sales in the third quarter are growing, and the fourth quarter traditionally takes a large share in the annual revenue.
According to Irina Bolotova, a consultant at JosDeVries The Retail Company, hypermarkets take a lot of time from people and require large expenses for future purchases, and with a decrease in income, buyers prefer to split spending over the whole week. According to the consumer market analyst of Raiffeisenbank Yegor Makeev, the format of such a store is also experiencing difficulties due to the restrictions imposed on the background of the COVID-19 pandemic in a number of regions on visiting shopping centers where many hypermarkets are located.
Operators of hypermarkets are now facing the issue of network optimization. Their areas can be supplemented with a dark store, as well as cafes and restaurants, which also work for delivery. Marina Malakhatko, head of the CBRE retail department, says that if hypermarkets are closed, shopping centers can fill the vacated space with a furniture retailer or an electronics store, since both segments are now showing very good dynamics.