As BV found out, the business is not being sold because of a good life – over the past 5 years, the chain’s revenue has been steadily falling, and the number of stores has decreased from 247 to 150.
X5 Group in the Saratov Region is represented by the Pyaterochka and Perekrestok chains. Now the company, whose beneficiaries are the co-owners of Alfa-Bank Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev, intends to occupy the area of part of the Grozdi stores, Kommersant writes.
Recall that in 2019, X5 Group similarly expanded its presence in the region by purchasing the rights to lease part of the Semeyniy chain stores from Volgatorg LLC, the Minkov brothers. And last month, X5 announced the purchase of 100% of Tamerlan LLC, which owns the Volga networks Pokupochka, PokupAlko and Ga-ga.
How many new outlets X5 will open in Saratov is still unknown – according to antimonopoly restrictions, retailers cannot exceed a share of 25% within the boundaries of one region.
During the crisis, many regional retailers are forced to close unprofitable facilities and are interested in selling their business or entering into partnerships with federal players, federal experts say. Local chains are forced to compete with hard discounters such as Ulyanovsk-based Pobeda and Krasnoyarsk-based Svetofor, as well as a decrease in traffic and the lack of growth in the average check.
All this applies to the “Bunch”. According to financial statements, its revenue has been falling in recent years – if in 2016 it amounted to 15.1 billion rubles, then in 2022 – only 8.9 billion. The number of stores over the same period decreased by almost 2 times – from 247 to 150.
The Grozd network was founded in Saratov in 2001. The legal predecessors of Center for Restructuring LLC were Grozd-Samolet LLC, Grozd-Product LLC, Center for Natural Products LLC. Currently, 90% of the company belongs to Dmitry Plotnikov, another 10% – to Andrey Belousov. Businessmen are also co-owners of Leasing Center LLC, which has been showing the same revenue of 1.8 million rubles for several years in a row.
Center for Restructuring LLC is the copyright holder of the trade marks Grozd and Cowberry Proper Food trademarks. According to Vzglyad-info, the second buyer of the Bunches may be Tander JSC (Magnit Network). However, it is unlikely that X5 or Tender will continue to use the trademarks of the Saratov chain in the future.