World meat industry news

Sergey Ermolaev, director of the department of the category "Fresh food products" of the retail chain Magnit, said that in 2021 the chain signed more than 80 new contracts with local dairy producers, in particular, in the framework of the own trade mark — it has become a new trend of the retailer, writes The DairyNews following the WorldFood Moscow 2021 exhibition.

Speaking about joint projects with partners, the speaker said that this year Magnit has signed more than 80 new contracts with local dairy producers, who supply more than 950 new products to 15 thousand stores of the retail chain. This is facilitated by development of a range of farm products, as well as a simplified contract for small businesses, which allows the retail chain to "become friendlier", since, according to reviews fr om local suppliers, which the manager knows about, Magnit is called a "harsh retail chain", where it is difficult for regional farmers to get to. Therefore, over the past two years, the retailer has been trying to "change" itself, to become open to feedback, so that small businesses can understand by what principle the retail chain selects products and what their parameters are in priority.

‘Please, if you have any questions, contact us, and we, for our part, will try to give detailed and understandable answers,’ the expert said.

According to him, since 2021, farm products have been sold in hypermarkets, wh ere it is already spelled out in the plans, an end showcase is specially provided for these products. Little by little, this assortment is also being introduced in a small format, for example, in Moscow, St. Petersburg, million-person cities.

As the speaker emphasized, special attention is paid to the private trademark presented in the retail chain in three price categories.

‘A private trademark appears not only in the price of basic products of the low price segment, but also in the middle price segment,’ said the director. ‘The private brand Magnit is also present in dairy products, we have launched the brand "Magnit Freshness" and are gradually starting to capture the third and fourth price segment. Just two months ago, Parmesan cheese, vegetable milk "Lifestyle" appeared under our private label.

The expert said that the project "Magnit Freshness" was launched in 2020 and is developing only with the participation of regional producers. The objective of this project is the daily supply of own trademark on a direct basis. We are talking about milk with a long shelf life, as well as kefir, fermented baked milk, sour cream and cottage cheese.

‘The project "Magnit Freshness" covered 15% of our geography or 2500 corner stores and 120 hypermarkets "Magnit family",’ the speaker stressed. ‘We have good sales growth in this segment. The implementation rate was +60% by March 2021. We have covered almost all regions and a number of major cities Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Moscow, Tver, Belgorod, Orel, Kursk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil, Perm, Izhevsk, Stavropol and Pyatigorsk. 

Answering the question about the share of own trademark and plans to increase it, the director said that now it "varies from category to category."

‘If we are talking about dairy products, now it is around 14%,’ he explained. ‘Cheeses make a significant contribution. However, taking into account the fact that "Magnit Freshness", "My price" appear in our stores, I think in the next few years this share will increase to 20%.