Russia's X5 Retail has partnered with private equity fund Acmero Capital and investment company Marathon Group to develop universal retail centres at passenger transport hubs.
The retailer expects to open between 600 and 1,000 passenger service centres (PSCs) at bus and railway stations, roadside facilities, and airports across Russia by the end of 2021.
The PSCs will offer multiple services ‘under the one roof’, including Pyaterochka grocery stores, pharmacies operated by Marathon, catering facilities by Acmero, ticket booths, parcel lockers, ATMs and payment terminals.
X5 reports that all of the centres will have a unique format, tailored to the needs of each specific location.
Partnership
Igor Shekhterman, CEO of X5 Retail, said, “In Russia, an average of 50 million people use public transport daily. This passenger traffic is ripe for converting into retail sales. According to X5’s calculations, passengers at bus and railway stations may become important contributors to the traffic of grocery stores and catering facilities."
“The project is especially beneficial for smaller cities, where bus and railway stations are often big gathering areas, but do not have modern developed retail infrastructure.”
Marathon president Alexander Vinokurov added that this is an "exciting" idea. "In our highly mobile living environment, transport hubs attract multitudes of people, and the footfall matters as much for pharmacies as it does for stores and food courts,” he said.
Meanwhile, Siman Povarenkin of Acmero Capital said that this project has the "potential to fundamentally change the notions of convenience and travel in Russia.”
© 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.
