Moscow, 14 February 2018 – X5 Retail Group N.V. ("X5" or the "Company"), a leading Russian food retailer (LSE and MOEX ticker: "FIVE"), announces that it strengthened its supply agreements with Russian producers in 2017, with the Group’s offering enhanced by produce from 1,050 new manufacturers from 63 regions across Russia’s seven Federal Districts.
The Central Federal District showed the strongest activity, with X5 establishing partnerships with nearly 500 new suppliers (more than 50% of them from the Moscow region). The number of producers from the Volga Federal District also increased substantially: of the 166 new suppliers from the District, major additions came from the Nizhny Novgorod region (30 partners) and Tatarstan (28 partners). 143 new suppliers contributed to greater visibility of products from the South and North Caucasian Federal Districts, with one third of them coming from the Krasnodar region. In 2017, X5’s retail chains also established partnerships with 86 new manufacturers from the Northwestern Federal District, 91 manufacturers from the Siberian Federal District and 68 manufacturers from the Ural Federal District. The new suppliers helped expand the offering of staples such as dairy, meat and fish products, cheeses, vegetables, fruits, grocery and others.
In 2017, X5 Dialogue business forums played an important role in bringing in new suppliers. In 2017, X5 staged a total of seven business forums, including as part of the openings of distribution centres in the Moscow region, Orel, Orenburg, Perm, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. X5 Dialogue was launched in 2015 to improve relations with Russian producers interested in working with the Company’s retail chains. As part of the programme, regional manufacturers receive valuable advice on how to build relationships with retail chains, including information on product quality controls, marketing opportunities and requirements for transportation, storage, sales and disposal of food products set out by the Customs Union and X5 in applicable technical regulations.
As of the end of 2017, in some regions the share of locally produced items at Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Karusel stores exceeded 30%, with Russian accounting for over 90% of the stores’ product mix.
In total, X5’s retail chains offer products from more than 5,000 suppliers.