X5 Retail Group to Renovate 270 Pyaterochka Stores in St Petersburg

Russia’s largest food retailer, X5 Retail Group, which owns the Pyaterochka, Perekrestok, and Karusel chains, will reconstruct 270 of the 500 existing Pyaterochka stores in St. Petersburg in 2020, Malls.ru reports.

According to Sergey Korobsky, operational director of the northwestern division of X5’s trading network, the reconstruction of stores includes updating the facades of buildings and the interiors of trading floors, changing lighting, installing self-service checkouts, coffee machines, and juicers, as well as expanding their product range.

He added that the first 30 stores of the new format will be open across the country by the end of December. Korobsky did not specify the volume of the company’s investments in the work.

The Pyaterochka chain includes around 15,000 stores in Russia, 1,300 of which are located in the country’s northwest.

In May, X5 Retail Group was forced to suspend the opening of new stores in St. Petersburg due to antitrust restrictions. Having reached a limit of 25% of the market, the retailer decided to focus on improving his own efficiency and increasing sales per square meter.