The opening quarter of 2011 has proved to be a positive one for two of Russia's leading retail groups, with both X5 Retail Group and Magnit reporting on significant sales growth when compared with the previous year.
Magnit, the country's largest food retailer by market value, revealed that first-quarter net sales rose 53 per cent on 2010 to some R75bn (€1.9bn).
Results were boosted by a surge in March, when sales grew 54 per cent year-on-year to R27.3bn (€674m) from R17.8bn (€440m) last year.
At X5, meanwhile, total net retail sales grew 51 per cent in dollar terms through the first quarter to US$3.8bn (€2.6bn), up from US$2.5bn (€1.7bn) in the same period of 2010, or 48 per cent in ruble terms to R112bn.
Kopeyka stores contributed some US$490m to X5's consolidated net retail sales, while like-for-like sales grew 12 per cent in ruble terms on the previous year.
'Sales grew 48 per cent in RUR terms in the first quarter, or 29 per cent excluding Kopeyka, led by a strong recovery in supermarket like-for-like sales growth and sustained performance of discounters,' said Andrei Gusev, CEO at X5.
Meanwhile, X5 has moved to dismiss speculation in the Russian media that its majority shareholder Alfa-Group is seeking to merge the retailer with an international partner.
'We have stated many times that Alfa-Group is a long-term investor in X5 Retail Group,' said Mikhail Fridman, chairman of the supervisory board of Alfa-Group. 'We see tremendous growth potential for the Company and strongly support its focus on development in the still immature and fragmented Russian retail market. Press speculation about merging X5 with international retailers is unfounded.'
