Russian retailer X5 Retail Group has announced that it will take part in a social cards programme that provides assistance to disadvantaged parts of the population in the Ulyanovsk region.
The retailer says that it signed a letter of intent with the government of the Ulyanovsk region which states the two parties will cooperate in the project. It was signed by Ulyanovsk region Governor Sergey Morozov and Х5 Retail Group's government relations director Stanislav Naumov.
The parties have agreed to develop and implement electronic social certificates (ESCs) which could be used to pay for food products at the more than 90 Pyaterochka stores in the region.
Charitable Contributions
X5 has previously worked with the government on projects of this nature in the past. In 2013 the government launched a project to provide social assistance to pensioners and multi-child families using ESCs, and X5 was the first retailer to start accepting the certificates in its stores.
At present, Moscow is the only Russian city that is offering the ESCs. X5 reports that they are a more ‘cost-effective and convenient alternative to food baskets, the traditional method of providing food aid’.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
