Page 24 - RusRPTJul23

The survey was conducted by the consulting company B1 (formerly the Russian division of E&Y) in May among a thousand respondents. From the results cited by Kommersant, it follows that this year, when buying perfumes and sports shoes, consumers have abandoned familiar brands to a greater extent than they expected in the fall of 2022. 17% against 11% in the fall are ready to give up perfumes of well-known brands that have announced their withdrawal from Russia, 11% against 6% are ready to give up sports shoes.
In the perfumery and cosmetics segment, consumers switched to lesser-known brands, including local ones. L’Etoile expects that this year the chain’s revenue from the sale of Russian brands will grow by 2.5 times year on year. The number of Russian brands at the retailer has grown by two or three times, the volume of products from South Korea, Japan, and Europe has noticeably increased.
A critical reduction in the range after the departure of Western brands in the Russian market did not occur despite the fears of consumers, analysts state. Last fall, 51% of respondents expected a reduction in the range, in the spring this share dropped to 37%. By 9 percentage points, up to 46%, the share of those who are confident that there will be no significant changes in the assortment and availability of products has increased.
According to the survey, 45% of respondents buy goods of departed brands supplied through parallel imports. At the same time, more and more buyers (71%) began to purposefully give preference to local brands (a year ago there were 69% of such brands). The share of those who are ready to buy goods from Turkish, Indian and Iranian manufacturers is also growing. But so far, local brands and brands from "friendly" countries cannot fully replace the departed Western brands, experts say.
2.9 Russian hard discounter Svetofor rolls out EU stores
Russian businesses have been cut off from western markets by sanctions, but
one of Russia’s leading discount retailers has snuck in under the radar and
continues to roll out stores in the EU,
Successful hard discounter Svetofor (Traffic Light) based in the Siberian city of
Krasnoyarsk rode the wave of the rapid rise of discount stores in Russia over
the last few years to become one of Russia’s five biggest retail chains and
were already displacing the leading international brands before the war caused
many of the multinationals to freeze operations or pull out of Russia altogether.
At the same time, the most successful operators were beginning to expand into
Europe, using their large revenue base, generated from catering to by far the
largest consumer market in Europe, to expand into the “near abroad” and the
EU proper. Since the war in Ukraine started most of those plans have been
curtailed, but not for Svetofor,
Pankratova reports.
The Bell reported on June 16.
The Bell special correspondent Irina
24 RUSSIA Country Report July 2023 www.intellinews.com