On June 2-3, the International Convention of large retailers and suppliers of goods and professional equipment The World of Trade was held in Almaty. This is already the 15th meeting of the main market players, dedicated to the development of the modern trading industry.
“Kazakhstan has become a bridge for concluding contracts between foreign retailers and foreign suppliers. In total, the convention was attended by 110 companies producing goods and equipment from Kazakhstan, Russia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Iran, Germany, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, as well as 145 representatives of leading retail chains from Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Belarus and Tajikistan. 22 retail companies entered into contracts with suppliers during the event. For the first time, contracts worth more than $5 million were concluded immediately on the site,” noted convention organizer Elena Sargaldakova.
For two days on June 2 and 3, the World of Trade convention worked in several key areas: an exhibition of goods and equipment, offline and online business negotiations between suppliers and retailers, as well as a Trade Congress. The exhibition was held both in a traditional format and in a hypermarket format, where participants had the opportunity not only to show their product to representatives of retail chains, but also to demonstrate how it would look on a real store shelf.
The Trade Congress brought together leading experts in the field of retail, discussed the problems of modern business associated with currency fluctuations, changes in supply chains, the closure of some large manufacturing plants, a decrease in purchasing power due to rising prices, and also shared their experience in overcoming new challenges. The discussion panels were attended by Azamat Osmanov, General Director of the Magnum Cash&Carry retail chain (Kazakhstan), Demid Samoshkin, General Director of the SMALL retail chain (Kazakhstan), Oleg Pechenkin, Head of the representative office of Russian Export Center JSC in Kazakhstan, Elbegi Abdiev, Deputy Chairman of the Board “Union of Retail Networks” in Kazakhstan, representatives of NCE RK “Atameken”, JSC CPTP QazTrade and others.
“There are global problems associated with food inflation due to jumps in raw material prices and changes in logistics costs. Only mature and strong companies can solve such problems. And the main thing here is interaction with the manufacturer and supplier, so as not to make spontaneous decisions, not to reduce the level of discounts, promotions, etc. It is important to trust each other and not play it safe by increasing prices. And, I am sure that in a partnership with mutual trust, a healthy, mature, profitable business will survive,” said Azamat Osmanov, General Director of the Magnum Cash&Carry retail chain.
According to Demid Samoshkin, general director of the SMALL retail chain, another pressing problem in Kazakhstan in 2022 is assortment hunger. “Some assortment has already been washed out.” This applies to household chemicals, cosmetics and perfumes. And, unfortunately, this trend will continue. Due to the situation in the world, some assortment will generally leave the Kazakhstan market for reasons beyond our control due to expensive logistics and sanctions on Russia. Some products are not even profitable to supply to Kazakhstan in such small quantities,” noted Demid Samoshkin.
Logistics problems are acute in all CIS countries. According to the head of the analytical department of the commercial department of the Korzinka chain of stores in Uzbekistan, Bakhodir Rakhmanov, the main challenges of today are related to the diversification of directions for the development of imported products. “Against the background of the crisis and lack of assortment on the shelves of various retailers, we are looking for new opportunities in logistics, striving to improve the assortment matrix through unique offers in order to diversify flows,” the expert spoke about the main directions of the company’s development in Uzbekistan.
Despite all the difficulties, retailers and suppliers are optimistic. On stage and on the sidelines of the convention, experts increasingly spoke about the need to develop modern organized retail in Kazakhstan. “This need is caused both by the expansion of the retailers themselves and by the possibility of domestic producers entering the shelves of retail chains in Kazakhstan,” said Aset Aitbaev, managing director of the trade department of NCE RK Atameken.
In order to effectively confront the challenges of modern business, participants also received fresh market data and learned how networks make purchasing decisions in the new environment.
At the analytical session of the congress, commercial director of Nielsen Kazakhstan Madina Seisengalieva spoke about the latest research on the FMCG market.
“At the beginning of the year, the International Monetary Fund predicted that the global economy would grow by 4.9% in 2022 compared to 2021. Kazakhstan was supposed to grow at 3.9%. However, the new forecast, which the IMF released in April of this year, is more pessimistic. According to new forecasts, we see that the growth rate of the global economy will slow down, and the economic growth rate in Kazakhstan will be lower than they were predicted to be in January of this year and will amount to 2.3%. According to the IMF, Russia shows negative economic development dynamics – minus 8.5% compared to last year,” said Madina Seisengalieva.
The most famous part of the World of Trade convention is the International Purchasing Center, which has been held for several years in two formats – offline with retail representatives who attended the event, and online with those retail chains that, for various reasons, were unable to come to the convention. However are interested in attracting new brands to the shelves of their chains. The largest retail chains, such as Magnum Cash&Carry, SMALL, METRO, Leroy Merlin, A-Store, Svetofor, Inmart, Carefood, JLC, GRAMAD, ARBUZ, GREENWICH, Yuzhny from Kazakhstan, X5 Retail Group, Lenta”, “Good Choice”, “Krasny Yar”, “Nizkotsen”, “Dobrotsen”, “Titan” from Russia, MAKRO and “Korzinka” from Uzbekistan, “Yerevan City” and SAS GROUP from Armenia, supermarket chain “Amid” from Tajikistan, GLOBUS, Narodny, DOCTOR from Kyrgyzstan, EUROOPT from Belarus, Rakhat Market from Azerbaijan and many others were able to directly negotiate with manufacturing companies that are expanding the geography of supplies of their products. The line at the conference tables did not subside until the end of the first day of the convention. As a result, everyone was able to leave with new contacts, useful acquaintances, and some companies with signed contracts.
On June 4, suppliers and retailers were able to take part in excursions to the SMALL and Magnum Cash&Carry retail chains.
The World of Trade Convention was organized by the International Operator of Business Events in the Retail Industry EXIM EXPO with the support of the Trade Policy Development Center “QazTrade”, the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of different countries, and the Center for Economic Performance of the regions of the Russian Federation.
The next meeting of leading retailers and suppliers, the World of Trade convention, will take place on November 24-25 in Almaty. The main topics of the upcoming meeting will be the results of anti-crisis strategies of retail representatives and summing up the results of 2022.
You can find out the conditions and register your participation from Elena Sargaldakova:
Mob/WhatsApp/Telegram +7 777 125 11 11 elena@exim-partners.ru
