Auchan says revenue in Russia to fall in 2019, rise in 2020

MOSCOW, Dec 12 (PRIME) -- The Russian subsidiary of French retailer Auchan expects its revenue to contract in 2019 but to rise in 2020, Johannes Tholey, Managing Director of Auchan Retail Russia, told reporters on Thursday.

“We did not manage to stop the fall in the number of customers and revenue. There were closures of stores. But our goal for the next year, and this is the major goal, is to stop the process of customer loss. We will stabilize revenue and return to growth,” he said.

According to research agency InfoLine, revenue of Russia’s Auchan fell 8.5% on the year to 306.4 billion rubles in 2018.

Tholey also said that the company has no plans to open new stores in 2020, but will launch new hypermarkets and supermarkets in 2021.

“I think that developing a modern concept until next autumn, including fresh and new services inside stores is realistic. There will be no development next year, but we will organize tests. We plan to speed up supermarkets again in 2021. It will be the priority sphere for Auchan’s development in opening of new stores. But we will change the concept of hypermarkets drastically,” he said.

“We have potential in our company, should use it first. Acquisition is a challenge, you have to merge different cultures, the issue of efficiency. A result is only attained in several years. This is why this is not our priority for now,” he said, referring to the possibility of buying hypermarkets from other retailers.

(63.5653 rubles – U.S. $1)

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