Marktkauf has opened a first store in Russia. This is the Bielefeld group’s largest outlet, and is also expected to achieve the highest volume of sales soon

On 6 February the German retail group, Marktkauf, opened its first shopping centre in Moscow directly on the motorway ring round the Russian capital. It has taken as its slogan, "My Marktkauf - What more do you want?”. The Marktkauf Center consists of a DIY superstore and garden centre of around 12 400 m² (including a partially covered outdoor area of 3 300 m²), a hypermarket of 8 600 m², plus a 2 500 m² mall with 14 specialist shops and service providers. This makes it the largest shopping centre of any operated by the company, which has professed the aim of seeing it notch up the highest volume of sales as well within the foreseeable future.

The entrance to the new Marktkauf store in the cold morning sunlight.

Dr. Andrea von Knoop, chairman of the German economic association in the Russian Federation, explains that the Bielefeld trading group’s 40 mio euro commitment is the biggest investment that any international trading company has so far made in Russia.

A sum of 33 mio euro alone was spent on the site of approximately 116 000 m², together with the building at Kotelniki. A further seven million euro went on the engineering work and fittings, while the initial supply of products required around ten million euro (wholesale prices).

Sack trucks and concrete mixers on special offer.

Marktkauf Rus at present employs a workforce of about 720, 20 of whom come from Germany. The company is reckoning with sales of 50 mio euro for this current year already. A good 25 per cent of that amount should come from the DIY and garden centre operation, although here the element of uncertainty is extremely high because of the lack of experience with DIY superstores in Russia, according to Helmut Metje, company spokesman for AVA. All in all the expectation is for the average sale per customer to come to 800 roubles (approx. 23 euro) and for the break-even point to be reached in between one and two years.

AVA/Marktkauf is planning to build from five to ten new stores in the greater Moscow area within the foreseeable future. Metje says that this will mean an investment volume in excess of 100 mio euro for the group. The product range amounts to around 40 000 items each in both the DIY store plus garden centre operation and the hypermarket as well. The DIY superstore covers twelve product categories, with a particularly wide choice in the categories of auto aftercare (engine oils) and insulating materials. Marktkauf also owns the first cutting machine for timber and sheet materials anywhere in Russia. The garden centre with its greenhouse is, in the words of Hermann Spielberger, managing director of Marktkauf Rus, the biggest of its kind in the Moscow region.

The owners of the estimated six million dachas within reach of Moscow form an important target group. Altogether the catchment area of the first Marktkauf Center in Russia is estimated to include a population of 1.1 million. A new residential estate is under construction immediately nextdoor to the centre, which is open for business seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m..

Unique feature: total electronic price-labelling in a DIY superstore.

Russian suppliers and wholesalers take care of about 95 per cent of the supply of goods. About 50 per cent of the goods in the DIY superstore are of Russian manufacture, a figure that Helmut Metje intends to increase still further. Russian journalists are forecasting a rosy future for the store: the prices in particular are acceptable because of Marktkauf’s positioning in the low to medium pricing segment.

A great selection of oils for Russian car engines.

Good omens for OBI as well: the Wermelskirchen-based company intends to follow suit with a double opening in Moscow planned for the autumn, and Praktiker and Leroy Merlin are also toying with the idea of entering the Russian market.