Tesco May Beat Wal-Mart to Russia
The English retailer Tesco, the third largest in the world with expected turnover of $103 billion this year, has announced that it may open stores in Russia. Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy announced the chain's expansion into India and possibly Russia in an interview with the British Times. The company's headquarters could not provide additional information. Tesco now operates in 13 countries and it plans to double the proceeds it receives from abroad (currently 27 percent) in the next ten years.
Tesco was founded in 1919 and operates over 3000 stores. Its ranks third in the world, after the American Wal-Mart and French Carrefour, in retailing. Carrefour is opening a 12,000 sq. m. store in the Fili shopping center in Moscow next year and Wal-Mart representatives have stated that the chain would like to expand into Russia with a local partner. The Russian X5 Retail Group has announced that it is in negotiations with all three of those retailers.
Russian retailing is growing at between 14 and 16 percent a year, according to various reports, and is expected to maintain that pace through 2010. The Russian retail market was worth $233 billion in 2006, with only 5 percent of the market conducted in “modern format,” compared to 57 percent in Great Britain and 87.4 percent in Sweden. Russia's five largest retailers control 5 percent of the market. X5's market share is expected to grow to 5 percent by 2010.
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All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 27, 2007
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