The METRO Group in Russia - Successful market entry

METRO Group has built up an extensive network of stores in Russia in a very short time. Here is a timeline of the expansion:

November 2001: The starting gun
Opening of the first two Metro Cash & Carry wholesale stores in Moscow.

2002 to 2003: Growing the network
Three further stores open in Moscow, and two in St. Petersburg. Their product range is specially adapted to the needs of Russian customers.

2004: Expansion into the provinces
Metro Cash & Carry opens its sixth store in Moscow. After successful consolidation in the big cities on the Moskva and Neva rivers, METRO Group extends its radius and successively develops the Russian provinces. The retailing company is now represented in Kazan, Yaroslavl, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, Samara and Krasnodar. Russia quickly becomes a profitable foreign market.

2005: Real in Russia
Real is the second METRO Group sales brand to enter the Russian market, with three stores within six months. Metro Cash & Carry opens one new wholesale store in Moscow and St. Petersburg each, as well as outlets in Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Nizhniy Novgorod, Tula and Voronezh.

2006: From successful duo to trio
This year sees a total of nine new Metro Cash & Carry wholesale stores opened in Russia. Real also continues to expand, and is operating six hypermarkets in Russia by 2006. Then, in December, the Media-Saturn Group opens its first consumer electronics center in the country, bringing the number of METRO Group sales brands in the Russian market to three.

2007: Market entry in Siberia
In October of this year, Metro Cash & Carry’s vast product range becomes available to customers in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, the third-largest in the Russian Federation. The new Novosibirsk store is the company’s 36th location in Russia and the 600th worldwide. For METRO Group, Siberia is both a milestone and a major challenge. Many products are sourced from Moscow, more than 3,000 kilometers away. To ensure they arrive in peak condition, regardless of how extreme outside temperatures may be, state-of-the-art temperature controlled vehicles are used in transit. Metro Cash & Carry is expanding its Siberian activities, with the opening of wholesale stores in Krasnoyarsk and Omsk in fall 2007. Other locations are in the planning, with Novosibirsk, as a regional center, leading the way. Media Markt well as Real also continue to expand in Russia. December 2007 sees the opening of Media-Saturn Group’s new store in the industrial city of Samara, the group’s 700th consumer electronics center worldwide. By year-end, the sales brand is operating eleven locations in Russia, while Real has a total of ten hypermarkets.

Retailers on the road to growth

The two foreign retailers with the highest sales on the Russian market are METRO Group and Auchan. Rewe and Tengelmann from Germany are also active here. France’s Carrefour plans to open its first two supermarkets in Moscow and Krasnodar in the last quarter of 2008. Domestic retailers such as market leader X5 Retail Group (Pyaterochka and Perekriostok) are also expanding. The company runs more than 860 outlets in Russia – mainly supermarkets – as well as around 866 franchise stores, mostly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Over the next few years, X5 plans to expand its network especially in the provinces.

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