Director of Government Relations, X5 Retail Group

Born on October 4, 1972 in the city of Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk region. In 1994 he graduated from the Ural State University with a degree in Political Science. In 2007, he underwent professional retraining at the Financial Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation under the “Anti-Crisis Management” program. Candidate of Philosophical Sciences (2008). He holds an Executive MBA degree from the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo (2014).

Since 2010, Head of the Department of Philosophy at the National Research Nuclear University “Moscow Engineering Physics Institute” (MEPhI).

From 1992 to 1997 he worked in the Administration of the city of Magnitogorsk. In 1997-1998 - assistant to the Head of the State Tax Service Alexander Pochinok. From 1999 to 2006 he worked as an assistant to Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Khristenko.

In 2006-2008, he worked as Director of the Department of Economic Analysis and Long-Term Planning of the Ministry of Industry and Energy of the Russian Federation. In 2008, he was included in the “top hundred” of the management personnel reserve. In 2008, he was appointed to the position of Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. He was an official representative of the Government of the Russian Federation during the consideration of the bill on trade in the State Duma of the Russian Federation. Participated in the development of the first version of the trade development strategy until 2020. Interacted with retail trade associations. Acting State Advisor of the Russian Federation, 2nd class. Member of the Bureau of the Expert Council of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives.

Actively involved in social and scientific activities: President of the Russian Association for Public Relations since 2010. From December 2010 to September 2012, he worked as vice president of the Skolkovo Foundation for interaction with government authorities, public associations and regional policy. Since 2013, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Public Relations Development Company, the largest communications agency in Russia. From 2013 to the present, he has been the Executive Director of the Eurasian Center for Integration Studies and Communications.

Since March 2015 – Director for Relations with Government Authorities of X5 Retail Group.

Has awards:

2003 - Certificate of Honor from the Office of the Government of the Russian Federation

2006 - Certificate of Honor from the Ministry of Industry and Energy of the Russian Federation

2006 - By Presidential Order dated November 13, 2006, a Letter of Gratitude from the President of the Russian Federation was issued for participation in the preparation of the meeting of G8 heads of state on the topic of global energy security

2010 - By order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated September 8, 2010, the Gratitude of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation was issued for holding the first Global Management Challenge championship in Khanty-Mansiysk)

2011 - By order of the President of the Russian Federation dated March 2, 2011, the Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation was announced for his great contribution to the preparation and holding of the All-Russian Innovation Forum “Russia, Forward!”

A meeting was held in video conferencing mode with the participation of representatives of X5 RETAIL GROUP, pilot chambers of the RF Chamber of Commerce and Industry project “AGRO “For Quality!”, at which the results of pilot audits in the Vladimir, Smolensk, Tyumen, Leningrad regions, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories were summed up.

The event was attended by the Vice President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Elena Dybova, representatives of X5 RETAIL GROUP: Director for Relations with Government Authorities Stanislav Naumov, Representative for Interaction with Government Bodies in the Subjects of the Russian Federation of the Directorate for Interaction with Government Bodies Aleksey Ivanov, representatives of the quality department: head of the department for quality control of goods of the Federal Trading Network "Perekrestok" Alexey Nester, Quality Manager, Quality Management, Federal Trade Network "Pyaterochka" Kristina Lyubimova , Head of the Department for Quality Control of Supplier Goods, Federal Trading Network "Karusel" Nadezhda Kalugina. More than 20 territorial chambers of commerce and industry also participated in the videoconference.

Vice President Elena Dybova outlined the importance of the meeting, since the first stage of the roadmap for the implementation of the Cooperation Agreement signed between the RF CCI and X5 RETAIL GROUP has been completed. Experts from the chambers of the pilot regions conducted the first audits within the framework of the project “AGRO “For Quality!” in cooperation with X5 RETAIL GROUP. Elena Dybova noted: “We must work out and find the optimal scheme of interaction when the interests of all parties are respected. First of all, these are the interests of regional manufacturers of quality products who are ready to confirm the high quality of their production processes and apply to supply their products to the largest network of X5 RETAIL GROUP. The second side is X5 RETAIL GROUP, which tries to keep the bar of the chain’s products as high as possible and maintain the image of X5 RETAIL GROUP as a supplier of high-quality products produced, including by Russian manufacturers. The third party is the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry with a hundred-year history, which has established itself as a system with high expert capabilities - more than 4 thousand experts in Russia.”

Director for Government Relations Stanislav Naumov noted that after signing the Cooperation Agreement, within six months we were able to jointly hold on-site market councils in seven regions of Russia: Vladimir, Smolensk, Tyumen, Leningrad, Oryol regions, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories. Stanislav Naumov noted: “These were very interesting meetings, new acquaintances. I am grateful to those of you who called and emailed me. The events were successful. For each of the regions where we held pilot meetings of the market council, currently, firstly, audit procedures are being carried out for those who wanted to take part in our already joint project “AGRO “For Quality!”, Secondly, we are actively preparations for the 2019 treaty campaign, which starts in the coming days.

I am sure that many of the suppliers who have already worked with us can today give feedback on product expansion, and I know for sure that there are newcomers who, thanks to membership in the regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry, were able to remove all fears and prejudices that are often unfounded no reason.

I hope that our regional representatives will continue to interact with regional manufacturers - members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who will occupy the shelves of X5 RETAIL GROUP in 2019, on the one hand, and will be successful participants in competitions for state and municipal orders, on the other hand. This is precisely the “know-how” of our project and its economic attractiveness,” concluded Stanislav Naumov.

Following the meeting, the parties planned to conduct joint audits by the end of the year, adjusting and simplifying the audit checklist by eliminating excessive requirements for manufacturers, as well as organizations supplier schools X5RETAILGROUP.

Department of Entrepreneurship Development, O. Andryukhina

Announced the appointment of Sergei Goncharov to the position of General Director of the federal retail chain "Pyaterochka". Appointed as new director of strategy Vadim Kapustin

“Sergey Goncharov has successful experience both in the field of strategy and brand management, as well as in the field of operational management and retail business development. In recent months, Sergey has led the process of updating the company's strategy, which allowed him to gain a deeper understanding of the X5 Retail Group business, as well as understand the priorities for further development. I am convinced that Sergey, due to his strong professional competencies and high personal motivation, will bring new approaches that will ensure a balance of growth, efficiency and profitability of Pyaterochka’s business., said Igor Shekhterman, Chief Executive Officer of X5 Retail Group.

Sergey Goncharov joined X5 on March 1, 2018. From 2013 to the end of 2017, Sergey worked at Magnit, where he headed the format "Magnet cosmetics". From 2005 to 2013 Sergey worked in Sony Corporation as Director of Strategy and Business Development, before that – in investment companies in Spain and the USA. Sergey has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

An internal candidate has been appointed as the new chief strategy officer. Vadim Kapustin, who previously held the position of Director of Strategic Marketing and Planning.

“Vadim Kapustin will be responsible for the process of constantly updating the strategy and searching for new growth points, as well as for innovation management, which is becoming increasingly strategically important for the Company. Vadim has all the necessary competencies and experience for this,”— noted Igor Shekhterman.

Before joining X5 in 2016, Vadim Kapustin spent five years developing and managing strategy in the international division of Walmart, as well as developing and implementing omni-channel and supply chain strategies for Walmart and Sam’s Club in the American market. Prior to this, Vadim worked in management consulting for more than 15 years. A.T. Kearney and KPMG in various countries and industries, including retail and FMCG. He holds a degree from Darden Business School at the University of Virginia.

About company

As of March 31, 2018, the company managed 12 thousand 701 stores. The chain includes 11 thousand 797 Pyaterochka stores, 674 Perekrestok supermarkets, 92 Karusel hypermarkets and 138 Express stores. The Company manages 39 distribution centers and
3 thousand 38 own trucks on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Stanislav Naumov: retail never got its own Sechin

Stanislav Naumov, Director for Relations with Government Authorities of X5 Retail Group, President of RASO.

Speech during the discussion around Irina Yarovaya’s amendments to the trade law at the “Experts Club” of VTsIOM

It was important for me to get an answer to the question of what is the electoral support for Irina Yarovaya’s position. In the pre-election context, it was necessary to enter into communication with United Russia on the question of how rational their bet on a “cold civil war” with the second largest sector of the Russian economy - retail.

As a result of the VTsIOM study “Attitude of Russian Residents to Retail Chains,” we saw that the position of radical populism, associated with a categorical rejection of modern retail formats, has quite a lot of supporters in a variety of categories of the population - about 34% of survey participants. This is a truth that should not be hidden.

But we do not forget that 66% are not supporters of Yarovaya’s position, and this is 2 times more. And these 66% are the subject of our sociological interest. Using the example of retail, it is clear that modern politics is carried out within the framework of a fairly sensitive attitude to public opinion - in this case, to the opinion of approximately 1/3 of the entire public population. The problem with the remaining 2/3 is that these are two different thirds, they are not consolidated and are not politically represented.

One of them is people who believe that more attention should be paid to market-based ways of working with consumers. They are focused on promotions, sales, and active market consumption. For them, communication with online trading, in addition to satisfying the need for calories, is also an economic game. And they are interested in playing it. But, if we compare the correlations, these are the same people who do not go to the polls; they rather go to sales on Sunday because there are discounts.

And the second third is a group of people who say that there is no need to strictly regulate prices and there is no need to limit trade margins, but that it is necessary to subsidize the socially unprotected and economically vulnerable segments of the population. Thus, Moscow residents receive about 200 million rubles a year on “Muscovite social cards”, so that they can come to our stores with them and receive a number of socially significant goods, in fact, in the form of a subsidy for consumption. And now the sample with the totality of responses from Muscovites is very noticeably different from the all-Russian one. It turns out that the gap between different cities in Russia is very large, and government regulation is structured as if everything is the same for everyone. This is, in fact, the problem.

In order to convey our argument to the recipients, we need longer discussions, including at the level of deputies and at the government level. Because the government is overloaded with administrative agendas and is unable to devote the proper amount of time to responding to parliamentary initiatives. No one should limit deputies in any of the most radical ideas. But clear expert assessments of what is being proposed are needed.

What we have? On May 19, 2016, for the first time in the practice of the State Duma, we have a vote in the absence of a government response to the Yarovaya amendments. Without a recall from the government, without a recall from the Ministry of Finance, amendments are being adopted that affect, as I have already said, the second largest sector of the Russian economy after the fuel and energy complex. Together with the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting, we made an expert assessment. So, the price of the issue is 500 billion rubles. This is 3.5 baskets of additional appropriations for defense.

This is the money that remains in suppliers' accounts. The food manufacturer underinvests 500 billion rubles in the full life cycle of its product, expecting that this investment will be additionally made either by the trading network as a distribution structure, or by the end consumer.

When natural resource rent was introduced into the fuel and energy complex, the topic of a zero tax rate on the extraction of minerals in new fields was raised, in addition to the export duty rate on oil and petroleum products.

These are quite serious questions. But the fuel and energy complex has its own Sechin in such matters. The problem with retail is that for more than 25 years since Boris Yeltsin issued Decree No. 1 on free trade, it has not had its own Sechin.

Modern Russian retail appeared in the mid-2000s with the arrival of large investors in the industry - both strategic and portfolio, both domestic and foreign.

The consolidation of, relatively speaking, many “stalls” scattered throughout the residential neighborhood has begun. And not only Auchan and Metro appeared, strong national champions appeared, such as Magnit or X5 Retail Group. And here we still, even at the government level, treat trade as a small and medium-sized business.

What did the results of the independent study show? That residents of large cities save their time and money, so they make most of their purchases where they are given a low price with proper quality.

People want to do more than just eat with the little money they have.. Considering that quality of life standards in Russia have increased over these 20 years, they want to eat well. Therefore, our concept is that the store is not just a source of calories, it is a modern space for a healthy lifestyle and healthy eating.

The development of our dialogue with the Ministry of Health shows: the likelihood that special food will be on the retail shelf at affordable prices is directly proportional to the number of newly opened supermarkets and hypermarkets. After all, in a small store located on the ground floor of a residential building, it is impossible to accommodate the required amount of special food, relatively speaking, low-fat yogurt.

The development of retail today is closely related to the fact that the food market has ceased to be national. Once the cost of chartering sea vessels allowed, and methods of storing agricultural raw materials became long-term enough, the market became global. Today, entire countries, entire continents specialize in certain categories of products that we buy at Pyaterochka.

When you come to Pyaterochka and see washed potatoes, they are from Argentina, not even from Israel. And it’s really easier for us to charter one large ship that comes to Russia, and its cargo is delivered through the distribution center to 7.5 thousand of our stores. This is much simpler than reaching an agreement with thousands of farmers who are trying to grow these potatoes somewhere in the Vladimir region and then sell them somewhere.

There is no need to create illusions. The only measure that will allow a Russian manufacturer to be competitive with an Argentinean one is global warming. When you grow four crops a year in one country and can ship it around the globe, you will always be four times cheaper, no matter what the exchange rate volatility.

“Farming”, which will provide the country with food, is the most dangerous myth for national food security. From the point of view of government regulation, we are now behaving like absolute retrogrades. We go back two centuries. Our government wants food prices to be low, and these products to be made by farmers and sold by stallholders.

There are 4 thousand individual entrepreneurs in the country who receive subsidies from the state. The total amount of these subsidies is 3.5 billion rubles. And now 500 billion rubles are being redistributed (in favor of whom is another question, but it is believed that in favor of “producers”) due to the fact that the state does not have enough money for these 4 thousand farmers.

But in general, there are 50 thousand non-chain stores in the country in 80 federal subjects. Nothing prevents each governor from taking several of his farmers, who officially receive a subsidy from the regional Ministry of Agriculture, and assigning each one to a non-chain retail store.

This, by the way, is a separate topic, why the Russian Ministry of Agriculture distributes subsidies for agricultural development in 50 constituent entities of the federation. This is a continuation of Khrushchev’s experiment with corn. It is necessary to distribute all 180 billion rubles that are in the state program, to a maximum of 5-10 climatically adequate territories where something can actually be grown and exported.

Finally, the biggest stupidity is blaming networks for trade markups. There is no trade markup in universal trade. Trade margins exist only in specialized trade. It only matters if you buy from no more than 3-4 suppliers and sell no more than 30 items. This is where the trade margin can at least somehow explain the pricing mechanism. The logic behind the operation of retail chains is the presence of two retail outlets of your competitors next to your outlet.

For retail chains, the main thing is to serve the customer who comes into the store. And the main KPI is not how much we will sell you, but what, when you leave our store, you will want to return to us again the next time you run out of everything in your refrigerator. Our company has ( X5Retail Group) 2 billion checks per year. This means that we must provide a retail service 2 billion times a year. To do this, we must create an appropriate workplace from which we provide this service. This is a capital investment. And we have to keep this workplace running. This is what we spend all our commercial margin on.

We are present on global exchanges. That is, all our expenses are transparent, and we show them to our external shareholders - global non-state pension funds that invest in retail in developing countries. And we are there by a happy coincidence of circumstances, those that are not external, but national, we ended up there as an object for investment.

They look at us for a long time and expect from us not that we will buy for 20 rubles and sell for 60, but that by 2020 we will occupy a market share of about 20%. Then we will have network scale. And network scale ensures cost reduction in every way relative to any competitors. This is a normal, modern economy.

So the strategy for the development of retail chains in the Russian Federation is approximately clear. In a normal, optimal scenario, three retail chains should appear in 2020, two of them with a market share of 20% throughout the Russian Federation.

https://www.site/2015-11-09/top_menedzhery_pyaterochki_nalazhivayut_sotrudnichestvo_s_postavchikami_v_kurgane

Kurgan producers asked to come to St. Petersburg and Moscow

X5 Retail Group is looking for points of interaction with authorities and local suppliers

Igor Ksenofontov and Olga Naumova

In Kurgan, where the federal retail chain Pyaterochka (part of the X5 Retail Group) opened its 6,000th store, the company’s leaders for the first time in the Urals Federal District held an open meeting with local manufacturers and government officials. During the round table, top managers of X5 told what prospects the company associates with the Kurgan region and how much it plans to invest in development in this territory. Suppliers and policymakers, in turn, identified problems and questions that they would like answers to.

On November 5, the Pyaterochka retail chain opened its 6,000th store in the country in Kurgan. A new supermarket appeared on Proletarskaya Street, 11, and its area was 488 square meters, the site correspondent reports. Pyaterochka emphasizes that special attention in the new store is paid to goods from local producers. For example, the share of Kurgan bakery enterprises here exceeded 46%, and the share of local dairy producers - 20%.

This supermarket became the eighth store of the chain in the Kurgan region, but one of the leading players in the Russian retail market - X5 Retail Group - does not intend to stop there.

The company reported that by the end of 2017 they want to open 80 Pyaterochka supermarkets in Kurgan and the region.

At the same time, it is important for the company to establish relationships with both regional authorities and local suppliers. “We would like relations between us to improve not only through attempts to tighten government regulation, but also through the development of co-regulation, through amendments to legislation that would not only prohibit doing something, but also encourage conscientious relationships,” Stanislav Naumov, Director for Interaction with Government Authorities of X5 Retail Group, emphasized, opening the round table.

Trade today is one of the most significant sectors of the economy of the Trans-Ural region, noted Deputy Governor of the Kurgan Region - Director of the Department of Economic Development, Trade and Labor Igor Ksenofontov. There are about 7 thousand retail trade facilities in the region, where over 15% of the total number of people employed in the regional economy work. The share of trade in the domestic regional product (GRP) exceeds 12%, it provides about 15% of the total tax payments to budgets of all levels, he added.

“No matter how much we are criticized: “How many stores and retail chains are possible!”, in any case, we will continue to work in this direction,” said Ksenofontov. – They say that it is necessary to look rationally at the development of this segment, even to the point of distributing all retail facilities throughout the territory. But here, probably, first of all, business knows better where it is profitable to conduct it. At the same time, being responsible for the development of competition in all industries and areas (our department is engaged in this, and in the near future we must develop and implement standards for the development of competition in the Kurgan region, including in the consumer market), my deep conviction: firstly In turn, the competitive environment is the main tool, including for containing price increases (so that they are formed by economic laws and methods - through supply and demand, and are balanced - satisfying both business and customers).”

Any initiative similar to the one put forward by X5 Retail Group, Ksenofontov noted, is supported by the regional authorities.

“If there are transparent rules of the game, there will be help and support from the Kurgan region,” the official emphasized.

Stanislav Naumov said that the company discussed with the regional authorities an important federal initiative - the market council. “We would like there to be a permanent opportunity for suppliers, manufacturers, and retail chains to use a mechanism for pre-trial resolution of emerging business disputes, so that once a year a “middle line” is established for services in the field of marketing and logistics. We know that legislators have an initiative related to the desire to more clearly define the nature of these services. We believe that since these services of retail chains are widely in demand by manufacturers, they should definitely remain and should not be the subject of bans,” he explained.

The head of the category management and marketing department of the company in the Ural region, Alexander Polyakov, spoke in more detail about these areas of work. Already today, he says, there are excellent examples of cooperation between X5 and local suppliers. The most outstanding of them is cooperation with the Kurgan meat processing plant, which, in fact, has turned from a regional supplier into a federal one. “If we talk about numbers, in October we purchased goods worth 18 million rubles from this supplier. This is only the Ural division. Across the country we are talking about tens of millions,” Polyakov presented the data.

Successfully, according to him, X5 also cooperates with the Veles meat processing plant - just the day before, company representatives visited the enterprise, and it made a good impression on them. Today Veles is represented in X5 stores in several regions, including the Tyumen and Sverdlovsk regions. “This suggests that any manufacturer that works effectively is able to go beyond the boundaries of its field,” concluded Alexander Polyakov.

So far, X5 in the Kurgan region does not have a very large pool of local suppliers. This is explained by the fact that the company is just entering the regional market, and this fact is considered a unique opportunity for manufacturers to establish contacts. “Everyone knows that as a retail network grows, cooperation becomes a little more difficult than when it entered the market. Therefore, I urge everyone to come to an agreement - we are as open as possible,” Polyakov added.

General Director of the Pyaterochka retail chain Olga Naumova, in turn, spoke about the company’s plans for the Kurgan region. She recalled that Pyaterochka appeared in the Kurgan region in April 2014, and already plans to end 2015 with 10 stores in the region (there are currently 8, two more will open in November - December). And by the end of 2017, the number of Pyaterochka stores in the Trans-Ural region should increase to 80.

The round table participants had several important questions for representatives of X5 Retail Group. Vice-speaker of the Kurgan Regional Duma Evgeny Kafeev, in particular, noted: “We welcome honest, conscientious networks that pay taxes and buy products from local producers.” At the same time, the politician asked how much investment X5 is ready to make in the Kurgan region, what will be the share of the local manufacturer on the shelves and what needs to be done at the local level for the company to develop here.

Stanislav Naumov responded that X5 plans to create 1 thousand 274 jobs in the Kurgan region (only through its own activities) and invest 1 billion rubles during 2016-2017.

As for the share of local producers, Naumov cited the example of the Kirov region, where X5 purchases 500 million rubles worth of products from local manufacturers and buys another 100 million rubles worth of goods that are sold not in the region, but in neighboring regions. “And we are interested in talking not only about the share within the region, but also about exports,” he noted.

Evgeny Kafeev also asked a question about the social orientation of the X5 group. Olga Naumova said that she considers the most important social task of Pyaterochka to be the desire to provide customers with the most affordable prices for food products. In addition, Pyaterochka gives discounts to socially vulnerable segments of the population, creates jobs, and pays the necessary taxes. Stanislav Naumov added that a program to help socially vulnerable segments of the population is now being launched - we are talking about the so-called “food bank”, when a buyer can purchase a certain set of products, which a volunteer will deliver to a specific recipient. Such an event has already been held in Perm and has just started in Tyumen. In addition, it has been working in Moscow for several years, and in other regions a social card project is being prepared for launch (a system of targeted budget support for socially vulnerable categories of citizens in the purchase of socially significant goods). X5 is also one of the sponsors of the Life Line charity foundation.

The greatest activity in the discussion on the part of local producers was shown by the deputy of the Kurgan Regional Duma, the general director of the Veles meat processing plant, Dmitry Iltyakov. “We would like to get to the shelves in the unconquered city of Petra and to the mother throne! - he said. – We are now coming to you, starting to sell through your shelf, a completely objective question from the local chains will be: “Well, why did you go there?” So at least there will be a justification: “I have already achieved what I wanted here, I have prospects for further development.” Today we have no chance of this, and there is no need to dissemble. In general, it would be interesting. This would be the best economic injection.”

Pyaterochka CEO Olga Naumova noted that there are positive examples in this matter. For example, products from Magnitogorsk are sold all the way to Moscow. “Let’s see if there are volumes, try, carry out federal promotions. We can start with one thing,” she suggested. At the same time, according to Naumova, it is necessary to calculate the cost - whether it makes economic sense to go to the St. Petersburg shelf.

In general, according to the general director of Veles, the emergence of a new, strong network in the region is a plus, because competition improves the quality of service to citizens. Dmitry Iltyakov promised that in terms of stability of supplies, the company will not let X5 down.

Several other manufacturers said at the event that they would like to work with Pyaterochka, including the Makosh enterprise from Petukhovo (engaged in the production and supply of snacks and confectionery products) and the Vodoley company from Kargapolye, which produces mineral water.

Building relationships at the local level, representatives of X5 Retail Group have already held a meeting with the Governor of Trans-Urals Alexei Kokorin. As Stanislav Naumov told the site, the company asked that, through the Trans-Ural Development Corporation, it be provided with assistance in connection with the infrastructure necessary to open new stores, including the Karusel hypermarket, which is planned to open in the region over the next 2-3 years.

In addition, the creation of a market council was discussed with the head of the region. According to Naumov, it is needed in order to analyze already in 2016 all the contracts that exist between manufacturers and retail chains, and in order to establish the average price level of those services that are in demand by the manufacturers themselves. “We believe that logistics services should not be prohibited (as is proposed today by deputies of the Federal Assembly). Especially, today we heard here how important it is for the same Veles enterprise to be able to get to St. Petersburg. If logistics services are banned, nothing at all will be exported outside the region,” Naumov expressed his opinion.

According to him, it is important to pay attention to the cost of marketing services. “To attract the buyer’s attention, of course, we need to carry out more promotions and conquer our niche. We want the market council to have the opportunity once a year to draw some kind of average line regarding what effective marketing services can be requested from manufacturers from retail chains,” he explained.

Naumov noted: X5 wants Kokorin to recommend a representative from the Kurgan region to the Market Council.

“We want to consolidate the business community of the Trans-Ural region on a platform of self-regulation,” he emphasized.

According to Stanislav Naumov, the fact that new retail chains are coming to the region should be taken calmly. Answering a question from a website correspondent whether X5 considers the local Metropolis chain a strong competitor, Naumov noted: “These are our competitors, yes. Of course, we expect that the attitude of local producers towards us will change and become the same as towards their regional network, which does not eliminate competition for the buyer: we will carry out promotions and fight for customers. We will be glad if we turn out to be interesting competitors.”