AMSTERDAM: X5 Retail Group, a leading offline and online food retailer in Russia, announced the Company’s preliminary consolidated net retail sales and operational results for the fourth quarter (Q4) and full year (FY) ended 31 December 2020(2).
X5 Chief Executive Officer Igor Shekhterman said: “Our performance in 2020 shows that we chose the right strategic path several years ago, when we began to focus on digital transformation of our business.
Thanks to our robust IT infrastructure and new digital services developed for our customers, we were able to adapt quickly to the unprecedented changes in consumer demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and rapidly scale up Perekrestok Vprok and express delivery services.
Online hypermarket revenue rose 207.9% year-on-year and our combined e-grocery businesses place us solidly among the top players in this sector.
“Our core offline operations delivered strong results throughout the year, supported by new store concepts for both Perekrestok and Pyaterochka, expansion of our own ready-to-eat assortment and constant focus on efficiency.
Robust business processes enable us to quickly roll out safety procedures across our operations, helping to protect the health of our customers and employees.
“X5’s digital transformation continued in both our customer offering and our internal business processes. We estimate that it had a positive RUB 7 billion impact on our 2020 EBITDA. In 2021, we expect this positive impact to rise up to RUB 20 billion.
“Trading in December and January has remained strong: during the last two weeks of December 2020, X5’s net retail sales increased by 12.3% y-o-y (16.0% y-o-y for Pyaterochka). In 2021 year-to-date, net retail sales growth accelerated to 12,4% y-o-y (15.1% for Pyaterochka).”