CFO: X5 Retail Group may slow down launches of new stores

MOSCOW, Apr 26 (PRIME) -- Russia’s X5 Retail Group may slow down launches of retail stores in 2019–2020, CFO Svetlana Demyashkevich said in a conference call on Thursday.

“We are now working on a strategy, we will discuss our launch plans (of stores) in 2019–2020. I won’t be surprised if we see a slowdown of launches over the next few years. It would allow us to focus on our efficiency and on improvement of operating activity of our stores among other things,” she said.

In 2017, the company launched 2,934 new stores. As of the end of March 2018, the company operated 11,797 Pyaterochka stores, 674 Perekrestok supermarkets, and 92 Karusel hypermarkets. In late March, CEO Igor Shekhterman said that the company planned to launch about 2,500 stores in 2018.

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