Russian supermarket chain Lenta has announced its goals for 2017 and long-term targets for 2020.
This year, it plans to open 30 hypermarkets, 50 new supermarkets, and explore new regions, starting with Novosibirsk.
It has decided to focus on the supermarket format, as it acquired 11 hypermarkets from Finland's Kesko last year and now is pursuing a 'conservative' fiscal policy.
The retailer will also add 200,000 square metres of selling space, and invest roughly RUB 40 billion in capital expenditures. In 2016, it spent RUB 54 billion on such projects.
As for its long term goals, it aims to be one of the top three multi-format food retailers and the largest hypermarket chain in Russia by 2020. It has also pledged to double its selling space by 2020, develop alternative models to aid growth, and continue enhancing its management team.
Lenta plans to add 150,000 - 200,000 square metres of hypermarket space each year, with long-term capacity for 400 more hypermarkets.
In the medium term, it will focus on Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other larger cities, while continuing to roll out to smaller cities.
As for supermarkets, the retailer wants to increase selling space by eight times by 2020 (which will equal 15-20% of its total selling space), and expand the network of existing distribution centres (beginning in 2017). It will mainly concentrate on renting supermarket premises, with 20-30% ownership.
Lenta is the largest hypermarket chain in Russia, in terms of sales space. It operates 192 hypermarkets across Russia and 49 supermarkets in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Central region.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Karen Henderson. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
