Russia's Magnit eyes expansion at thousands of post offices: CEO

Russia's second-biggest food retailer Magnit plans to expand its reach by opening shops in thousands of Russian Post offices, eyeing efficiency gains from sharing transport infrastructure, Magnit's chief executive told Reuters. Magnit announced plans to cooperate with Russian Post, a state-run postal operator which has 42,000 branches across the country, in February. On Thursday, the company said the first stores would open at the end of June.
CEO Khachatur Pombukhchan said Magnit could potentially open several thousand stores in post offices a year if the pilot project succeeds. "While we open stores in municipalities with populations of at least 2,000-3,000 people, the Post has branches even where there are less than 500 people," Pombukhchan said in an interview on the sidelines of the St Petersburg economic forum. "This gives us the possibility of getting into areas where we would not have gone on our own because it's not economically viable," he said.
The trial will run until November when the company will decide on developing the project further. Once expanded, it will also result in sizeable savings on transport costs through the joint use of logistics infrastructure, Pombukhchan said.