New elephant in St. Petersburg DIY market

The St. Petersburg Holding Rollman wants to build up a branch network of supermarkets under the name “Slon” (elephant). The first DIY store will be built for around € three mio on the company’s own premises in Pushkino. The pilot store will offer 10 000 products on 5 600 m². The company wants to keep a low margin and has calculated the local average turnover to be around € 30 per purchase. Depending on the results of the first “Slon” store, decisions will be made on further developing the branch network. Up until now, Rollman, with its ten subsidiaries, has been primarily known as a manufacturer of industrial and automotive filters, but also produces auto chemicals, plastic products, operates timber processing and trade objects for car spare parts and cheap goods, as well as a building yard. Reason for the expansion is that the existing business is weakening. The DIY segment is expected to provide profitability of up to 20 per cent. Given that the DIY industry in St. Petersburg is consolidating and has intense competition, a new opening is a bold move, which could however be quite successful with its own key product range produced on its own premises. According to Info Line the industry in the northern Russian city has grown by ten per cent to € 1.2 bn in the first half of 2014. Industry leaders are Maxidom (13 per cent market share), Petrovitsh (12 per cent) and Metrika (nine per cent).