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July 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
Russia could allow online alcohol sales
Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) watchdog suggested support initiatives for the retail and catering industries amid coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which also includes allowing online alcohol sales, RBC business portal reported.
"Alcohol represents some 10% of sales across the modern format and is one of the most profitable categories for chains," VTB Capital (VTBC) commented on July 8, adding: "were sales online to be allowed, the e-groceries sector in Russia could receive a sizeable tailwind."
E-groceries is already the fastest growing e-commerce segment in Russia. Overall online food sales amounted to RUB42bn ($590mn) last year in 2019 and could surge 17-fold to RUB716bn by 2024, VTBC notes, with online alcohol sales bringing even larger possible upside.
Other measures reportedly suggested by FAS include retail licences without a time limit, lifting the ban on selling beer at petrol stations and alcohol in parks.
"The beer sector in Russia saw a number of regulatory limitations on sales and promotions of alcohol in 2013-17, including the bans on advertising on TV and in the print media, sales in public places and distribution in PET bottles of more than 1.5l," VTBC reminds.
Anadolu Efes had 64% of its 1Q20 volumes coming from Russia, which has proved one of the more resilient segments in the company's portfolio, as COVID-19-related restrictions were imposed, with on-trade beer consumption growing in the mid- single digits.
The country outperformed the market in 1Q20, allowing the company to capture some 30% of the market and to attain leadership from Carlsberg, VTBC notes, reiterating a Buy call on Anadolu Efes despite the 36% bounce of its shares from March lows.
ING Bank launches fashion marketplace
in Romania
ING Bank, the fourth-largest bank by assets in Romania, has launched the online shopping platform DealWise, thus entering the fashion trade, Ziarul Financiar daily reported.
The products sold on the marketplace platform include sports equipment, clothing, personal care items and toys. Some offers are available directly in the application, while others link to the website of large retailers such as Zara or Mango.
"We are an innovation of ING Bank NV. This means that we have behind us the strength and stability of a bank, but the flexibility and speed of a start-up,” reads a presentation on the DealWise website.
We are the first such ING Bank NV business in Romania, and this is twice a good thing: once because your money and data benefit from the security of a bank. Then, because we have local insights.”
Through this platform, ING Bank competes directly with online fashion retailers such as Fashion Days (owned by eMAG) and answear.ro.
Kazakhstan launches mobile app to combat counterfeit and illegal alcohol sales Kazakhstan has launched a mobile app to help the government crack down on the trade in counterfeit and illegal alcohol.
The new app, called e-Sapa, can be used to check the legality of alcoholic products by scanning a barcode on tax stamps bearing 2D datamatrix or PDF-417-stacked linear barcodes, or entering the data manually. The app then returns information on the name of the product and its manufacturer or delivers a warning if the code is invalid.
Around 5,384 excisable alcoholic products sold in Kazakhstan were verified via the app.