Yekaterinburg’s first outlet of Ramstore, a federal supermarket chain owned by Ramenka, is going to welcome visitors on the premises of Carnival Trade and Entertainment Center on February 3, 2007. The total area of the store is estimated at 8,000 square meters, with 5,300 square meters used for retailing purposes. The project has required $2.5 million worth of investments. With this supermarket, Ramenka implemented the one stop shopping concept: both food and non-food items are available there.

The emergence of the large federal and international players on the local grocery market alarmed some retailers at first; they feared a lot of customers would no longer stay loyal to them, yet experience has shown that the local chains have been competing successfully with their larger counterparts.

Says First Deputy General Director of Ramenka Ltd. Orcun Onat: ‘Ramstore is to face strong federal and local rivalry in Yekaterinburg. The market, however, is currently in the stage of development, so every shop will get a client.’

Experts don’t believe the arrival of Ramstore is going to drastically change the market; the local companies have already learned to live with the federal giants and are quite competitive. At the same time, they do admit that Ramstore is a successful company that is worth emulating by Yekaterinburg retailers.

‘This new supermarket won’t change everything dramatically; some customers will go, but this will only happen due to the appearance of a new and different shop. This shop being Ramstore rather than anything makes no difference,’ says O. Nagibina, the spokesperson for Kirovskiy supermarket chain.

On the other hand, N. Buriko of Kupets retail chain says Ramstore is one of the greatest retail players, so their company is going to keep an eye on their performance and come up with counter tactics.