Company News

With ASTERA participation ‘Azbuka Vkusa’ opens its third ‘AB Daily’ minimarket

Premium grocery supermarket chain, ‘Azbuka Vkusa’, rented a facility on 1, Novokuznetskaya street, where the company is planning to allocate its third store of a new AB Daily format. The opening of a minimarket is planned for the beginning of September. ASTERA an alliance member of BNP Paribas Real Estate acted as a consultant of this transaction in terms of finding premises.

Azbuka Vkusa Group is actively developing its new AB Daily minimarket format in Moscow. The assortment of minimarkets accounts to 3500 items including all main product categories. The main accent is made on finished goods such as, soups, salads, meat, fish, and side dishes prepared on company’s proper factory-kitchen. According to company management, new format is oriented, primarily, towards people who lead an active life and do not have enough time to prepare food.

In Moscow today AB Daily minimarkets are opened on 10, Butyrsky Val street, and 91, Leninsky prospect. The opening of the third store on 1, Novokuznetskaya street is expected in August. Estimated amount of investments into the project is 15 million rubles.

Besides traditional sales outlets in minimarket, express-café will be also allocated here and will offer its customers a wide choice of fresh bakery, confectionery products, coffee and other goods (fruit tea, juice, etc.). The store is expected to serve more than 1500 customers every day. Average check amounts to 400 RUR.

‘In order to allocate the stores of AB Daily format, we consider facilities with area of 300-500 sq.m in the districts of high quality residential development in the center, and we are focused on Moscow residents with above average income level’, - tells Olga Zalunina, director of AB Daily format. ‘The facility on Novokuznetskaya street attracted us mainly by its favorable location: the object is situated in the center of Moscow at the intersection of large shopping streets not far from two metro stations which creates big pedestrian traffic. Target audience of the new store includes office employees and workers of business centers located nearby. Also, we are focused on residents of the nearest districts’.

The company will open its next store of AB Daily format on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. By the end of 2014 ‘Azbuka Vkusa’ is planning to open more than 10 minimarkets in Moscow. In future new format is also planned to be actively developed in Saint Petersburg.

‘Average rental rate for premises with the area of 300-500 sq.m in this location amounts to 1200 sq.m/ per year and it can reach $2500 sq.m/per year depending on location, layout, engineering specifications. The share of vacant space does not exceed 5% on pedestrian streets in the center of the capital. There is almost no rotation of tenants and, thus, negotiations concerning the rent of liquid premises start one year before the expiration of lease agreement. As a rule, such premises do not even come on the open market, and large companies prefer to contact professional consultants.

Major tenants of commercial premises in this district are public catering operators. Mostly, due to the absence of necessary space, there are no large supermarkets nearby. Predominant historic mansions with low ceilings (not more than 3 m) and office layouts in the center of Moscow do not allow adapting of already existing premises to supermarkets. Thus, new store of Azbuka Vkusa chain can count on high customer flow due to low competition level among chain retailers’, - comments Alexey Filimonov, CEO at ASTERA an alliance member of BNP Paribas Real Estate.