Welcome

Welcome to Blackcurrant Group

Blackcurrant Group was founded in the year 2002 in Bad Orb. Since then we have worked with 16 retail companies providing high-class services. We worked on projects lasting from 2 months to 3 years. Our clientele includes such companies as: Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Champion, Carrefour, Tempo Delta Group, Lilly, JFK Joint Fruit Company, O’Key Hypermarkets, Ils de beauté, European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, Roland Berger and others.

We provide our customers with innovative concepts that we have developed. Not only we are restructuring like every other consulting company, but we are also implementing the suggestions.

News

Auchan Group centralises its Russian financial flows using its own bank

French group Auchan is actively working on creating its own bank in Russia – the documents will be submitted to the Central Bank in the summer. Having its own bank will open opportunities for Auchan to credit its customers in their stores, increasing sales.

The fact that Auchan is only now has began to actively work on establishing the bank, is due to the high costs of the project, that is economically viable only for large scale business.

Read more: www.retailstudio.org

Retail chain “Silpo” expands its number of stores

Group of Companies (GK) Fozzy Group, developer of grocery store chain “Silpo”, Fozzy, “Fora”, “Bumі” and “Le Silpo”, has opened three new supermarkets “Silpo” at the end of April 2012, expanding the network to 229 stores in total.

According to the company new stores has opened in Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv and Lozovoy (Kharkiv region).

Read more: www.retailstudio.org

Top 10 retailers in Poland, 2011

The company Planet Retail has published rating of the largest retailers in Poland.

It should be noted that the top positions are occupied by retailers in the country, developing a discounter format: Jeronimo Martins (Network Biedronka) and the Schwarz-Gruppe (network Lidl and Kaufland). In general, in the top 10 of the Polish retailers are just seven international companies.

170 million dollar shopping centre has opened in Russian city Rostov

The group of companies “Tashir” invested 170 million USD in construction of shopping centre “RIO” in Rostov-on-Don (Russia). The shopping centre has opened in April 2012.

The total area of the mall is 100,000 square meters. Main tenants of the shopping centre are “Our hypermarket” (owned by "The Seventh Continent"), a supermarket, electronics and home appliances “Eldorado”, the hypermarket of household goods, “Our House” and a cinema network, “Star Cinema”.

Read more: www.retailstudio.org

Alhokair continues its expansion across the CIS Region

Fawaz AlHokair have made their debut in Tbilisi, Georgia, as major tenants of the newly opened Uptown Tbilisi Mall.

The launch will see Alhokair become Georgia’s largest retail group, with 15 of the retail specialist’s franchised brands opening in the mall on 6 April, and another 17 planned to open by the end of June this year.

Alhokair brings to Georgia such brands as Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Stradivarius, US POLO Assn, Charles and Keith, Le Vie en Rose, La Senza, Pull & Bear, Lipsy, Aldo Accessories and Steve Madden.

Auchan invests 30 million USD in a new hypermarket

Auchan Group invests 30 million USD in building and development of a new hypermarket in Kiev. Auchan has signed an agreement with development company XXI Century Investments.

According to the agreement 9 million USD, or 30% of the total, will be funded in two instalments, while the remaining 21 million USD (70% of total) – will depend on the completion of various stages of a project development.

Russia’s e-commerce volume can grow up to 30 billion USD by 2015

The main reasons for such growth will be increase in Internet penetration and development of a culture of online purchases and payments.

Currently, the share of electronic commerce in Russia’s trade is quite small and amounts to only 1.5%. However, it is estimated that with a nationwide modernisation high-speed Internet will appear even in small villages by 2015, which in its turn will drive e-commerce market.

Read more: www.retailstudio.org

Retailers cut stores areas

Consumer electronics retailers will be entering Russian regions with smaller shops.

Russia's largest home appliances and electronics retailer “M.Video” will open a hypermarket in a new format specifically designed for small towns. The area of these stores will be about a 1 thousand square meters.

“Media Markt” is also expanding into new territories with smaller shop format. “Eldorado” 1 thousand square meter shops has already accounted for 15% of the chain.

Read more: www.retailstudio.org

X5 Retail fourth-quarter profit climbs

X5 Retail Group climbed the most in almost a week after Russia’s largest food retailer said net income jumped 52 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period a year earlier to 134 million US dollars as it opened more stores.

Wal-Mart is missing out on Russia's retail boom

Fearful of getting hamstrung by Russia's complicated and time-consuming bureaucracy, the world number one retailer has been outmanoeuvred by its European peers – Auchan and Metro.

Wal-Mart has missed out on the 30 percent-plus sales growth currently enjoyed by Russian retailers.

Wal-Mart could also see competition from other foreign retailers if it tries to buy a local player in Russia, with accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2012 making Russia's import-heavy retail sector even more appealing for international players by simplifying the import process.

The permanent head of the “Pyaterochka” Oleg Vysotsky decided to leave the X5

General Director of Discounter Format Oleg Vysotsky, who had been leading the chain of discount stores since its formation in 1999, decided to leave the X5 Retail Group. Alone with Oleg Vysotsky goes Business Support Director Taimur Shternlib.

In his statement to RBC Daily Mr.Vysotsky quoted “tiredness” as the main reason for his leave and said that he was ready to begin a new stage in his life. However, the author of the article argues that the real reason is that Oleg Vysotsky does not support the course of a new leader Andrei Gusev, quoting that “he does not see Gusev as a professional”. Since Mr. Gusev became CEO in March 2011 the company has left core people in top management including Commercial Director and Logistics Director.

X5 Retail Group is Russia’s largest food retailer by sales.

Fozzy Group goes PayPass

MasterCard, international leader of electronic payments, Bank Pivdenny and Fozzy Group announced that they are starting to accept new payment method PayPass in their single national supermarket chain Silpo, as well as hypermarkets Fozzy.

PayPass is not only convenient for customers, it also significantly increases operational activity of the retail business says marketing manager of Silpo chain. He also believes that installing PayPass technology will decrease time that customer spends at the checkout and will increase level of comfort for shoppers.

Read more: www.retailstudio.org

Private labels, two sides of one coin

Private labels have become real discovery for retail chains during crisis. They have become an amazing tool during the period of customer indifference to shopping. However, along with first indicators of shopping growth, success of private labels backfired.

Period of 2009-2010 has become a real prime time for PL, when customers were very price sensitive. To set the example, in 2010 increase in sales of private label products has been 60-70%. At the same time in 2011, comparing to 2010, PL sales in big cities slightly decreased, however, still maintaining relatively high level of sales.

Experts want to focus the attention of retailers on the fact that in the future approach to private label development should be financially substantiated, in order to earn customer loyalty and ensure them in the product quality.

Read more: www.retailstudio.org

Hypermarket “Real” plan to open new stores in Moscow

According to Managing Director of “Real” chain in Russia Antonio Baptista the company plan to open three-four new stores in Moscow and Moscow region by the end of 2012. There are already five “Real” hypermarkets in Moscow Region.

The company plan to invest 20 million Euros in each new facility if only a reconstruction is needed and 30 million Euros if it has to be built from scratch. Antonio Baptista stressed that the expansion of the chain will depend on “whether we will obtain all the necessary documentation and permits”. The first meeting with the Moscow mayor’s office has already taken place on Wednesday.

“Real” chain of hypermarkets is part of the German METRO GROUP.

Tbilisi: the future shopping Mecca of the Caucasus

Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava is opening new malls, new shopping districts and even a new shopping festival to bolster the city's image as a one-stop destination for discerning shoppers. "One of the key potentials for Tbilisi is turning it into the regional shopping centre," Mr. Ugulava, said as he opened the capital's first shopping festival.

However, industry expert points out that “Tbilisi needs to meet certain standards, like increased variety and brands” in order to become a shopping destination. It is also stressed that prices in Tbilisi are astronomical compared to similar shops abroad, and poor selection means shoppers are limited in their choice of cuts, colours and styles.

Rebranding in retail – fashion or necessity?

Industry experts argue that with the right marketing policy rebranding may become a powerful tool that helps to improve efficiency and increase market share without brining an extra cost.

According to the article it is particularly true during the crisis when consumer demand shrinks and competition between store chains is particularly high. It is stressed that rebranding involves not only the visualization of the old brand but also change in the concept of trading.

“ATB” and “Silpo” are the most popular retail chains

People in Ukraine prefer self-service stores, which can be confirmed by the fact that 78% of people ,who live in towns with population over 50 thousand, do most of their shopping in supermarkets, hypermarkets and corner stores.(comparing to 68% in 2008).

Leading retail chains are “ATB” and “Silpo ” with corresponding 22% and 21% of people who name these stores as their main shopping destination for provision. Amongst advertising campaigns that are held by various chain stores, advertising involving discounts is found to be the most appealing.

Read more: www.retailstudio.org

Russia to become Europe’s second largest retail market

The Russian market has enormous potential for developing retail business. According to Euromonitor International, Russia is to become Europe’s second largest retail market with sales in 2011 amounting to $621 billion and may become the largest market in Europe by 2013-2014.

"Already spending heavily, Russian consumers will soon be spending much more... Because personal taxation is low, with the basic rate at just 13%, Russians have disposable incomes close to those in many seemingly much richer West European countries," Prosperity Chief Economist Liam Halligan. However, some of the biggest player in Russian retail market has failed to take advantage of recent retail sales growth.

Corporate brand value

Company image today is worth much more than ever, because in the mindset of the customer it merges with brand image creating single “corporate brand”. While choosing between one product or the other among other things customers seriously consider reputation of the manufacturer.

According to the results of the research “The Company behind the Brand: In Reputation We Trust”, conducted by the global PR-agency Weber Shandwick, the opinion of the company that stands behind the brand is highly important customer decision making process. Approximately 70 % of the customers avoid purchasing products, if they are not happy with the manufacturing company. And 87% of of PR and marketing managers agree with them, saying that strong “strong corporate brand is as important, as strong product brand ”.

Read more: www.retailstudio.org

Brand loyalty is shaken by the packaging

Professor from Erasm Rotterdan University Stijn van Osselaer and professor from Florida University Chris A. Janiszewski published their work in magazine “Consumer Research”. In their study authors explain, what really drives consumers, while they make their choice regarding one product or another.

“Research shows, that lately customers are unstable in their brand preferences. Slightest media influence can make them lose their brand loyalty towards one product and chose another over it” says Mr. Janiszewski.

It is suggested by the researchers that overall value of the product depends on the health benefits consumer can receive from it. For example, if the word “health ” is present on the packaging, this product instantly becomes much more attractive, even though customer is not actually aware of it.

Blackcurrant Group at the Annual Category Management Conference in Atlanta 2011

Blackcurrant Group is participating in the 2011 Annual Category Management Conference organised by Category Management Association on October 25-27th in Atlanta, GA.

This conference is designed to connect key opinion leaders from the top Consumer Packaged Goods manufacturers, retailers, consultants and educators. The environment of the events is educational and promotes the exchange of ideas that leads the way to better associations and to discovering new ways of working together.

Topics covered will include: Shopper Behaviour, ROI of Category Management, Private Label Scorecarding, Channel Trends, Shelf Compliance, Planogram Automation, Promotion Strategy.

You may find the agenda on the official website of the Category Management Association.

See you there!