OCT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Starbucks said it would open two stores in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s business capital, its first stories in Central Asia. The two stores will be located in shopping malls owned by the brand Mega. With the new opening, scheduled for 2016, Starbucks will have stores in 67 countries globally.
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
DUSHANBE, SEPT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — French retail group Auchan said it will supply its new hypermarket in Tajikistan with Russian-produced goods from November after a successful test-run.
The Russian branch of Auchan had earlier signed an agreement with Schiever Group to open a 5,000 square metres store in Dushanbe.
From a warehouse in Novosibirsk, Russia will supply around 80% of the products for sale in Tajikistan’s new store, the company said.
The project, conceived in 2014, was co-financed through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which allocated $5m for the construction of Tajikistan’s first hypermarket. Through the deal, EBRD has become a stakeholder in Schiever Tajikistan.
Tajikistan is the third post-Soviet country, after Russia and Ukraine, to host an Auchan hypermarket. It also plans one in Armenia. Reliant on workers’ remittances, Tajikistan needs more foreign investment.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
BISHKEK, SEPT. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s entry to the Eurasian Economic Union last month has created confusion and extra bureaucracy for businesses, Aziz Soltobayev, founder of the online store svetofor.info, said in an interview with The Bulletin.
Mr Soltobayev, 32, said the Kyrgyz government had failed to give clear instructions on what impact membership of the Eurasian Economic Union would have.
“There is not much to be happy or thrilled about,” he said at his company’s headquarters, a converted house in central Bishkek. “For example if you want to export you have to be on the exporter’s list and this means more bureaucracy and inspections and examinations.”
Kyrgyzstan became the fifth member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union last month. Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia are also members. The problem is that when the idea of the Eurasian Economic Union was floated, Russia was in the ascendency. Now its economy has tipped into recession.
“Oil prices were really high and it [Russia] was just booming,” Mr Soltobayev said. “But things have changed. The war with Ukraine, US sanctions and the devaluation of the rouble has made this Union miserable, just the worst place.”
And the costs are growing too. Svetofor.info buys stock from China but Mr Soltobayev said prices for imported goods had already increased significantly.
Regarding svetofor.info, which he started in 2004, Mr Soltobayev said its best-selling products were mobile phone handsets. On the streets of Bishkek, most people seemed glued to mobile phones.
Mr Soltobayev said svetofor.info was going to quit its remaining high street shops altogether in the next few years and move its operation completely online.
“With access to the internet and with the decline (in price) of data packages people are using it more and more,” he said. “We see now that people are buying products on their mobile phones. They don’t have desktop phones any more and we see people doing this not just in the city but also in the countryside.”
Fashion, he said, is all important with the latest smartphone being the number one accessory for Kyrgyz.
“They would certainly rather buy an iPhone and live in miserable conditions,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – BAKU — Harvey Nichols, the upmarket, blingy British retailer favoured by the world’s globe trotting metropolitan elite has closed its store in Baku only four months after opening.
A spokesperson for Harvey Nichols declined to comment but she did confirm the news.
“Harvey Nichols has terminated its licence agreement with the operator of the Baku store. Consequently, the Baku store no longer operates under the Harvey Nichols brand,” retail-week.com quoted a spokeswoman as saying.
A Bulletin correspondent in Baku confirmed that the Harvey Nichols signage had been removed from its shop in an upmarket shopping mall.
The closure will embarrass the authorities in Azerbaijan who have taken pride in attracting some of the top luxury brands to Baku and turning it into a regional shopping Mecca.
And it also shines another spotlight on Azerbaijan human rights and corruption records which have been attracting criticism.
Harvey Nichols opened its Baku store in March 2015, its eighth overseas outlet and the first in the former Soviet Union. It operated in Baku through a franchise arrangement.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – US fast food giant McDonalds will open its first store in Kazakhstan this year in Astana, media reported quoting city officials. Last year McDonalds said it had agreed a franchise deal with businessman Kairat Bornabayev.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
TBILISI/Georgia, JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — US fast-food chain Wendy’s has just opened its sixth restaurant in Georgia, Dunkin’ Donuts its eighth. Despite a general economic downturn, the fast-food scene in Georgia has exploded over the past year or so.
The lone McDonald’s in central Tbilisi had since the 1990s been the only US fast-food restaurant in the country. Now locals can choose between Wendy’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Burger King, KFC, Subway and Domino’s Pizza.
And Georgians, whose culture hinges around long meals with friends and family, have turned the fast-food sector into a social scene of their own.
The fast food restaurants in Tbilisi are often filled with women dressed in high heels and their best dresses, men in buttoned-up shirts, young children in their Sunday clothes and teenagers sporting the latest fashion.
“We come here every Saturday,” Nitsa, 13, said as she started to tuck into her burger at a Wendy’s restaurant in central Tbilisi. “We like the food a lot, but we also just love to sit here and talk for hours.”
Families come for a day out and young couples for a romantic dinner. Most are also looking for a change from Georgian food.
Tamuna Mosidze, who was pregnant, had another reason for choosing to eat in one of McDonald’s fast-food restaurants.
“It’s the best service in town and you know the ingredients are quality,” she said.
And the US fast-food restaurants appear to have noticed this distinctive Georgian feel about their restaurants.
Sophie Chogovadze, head Marketing Wendy’s and Dunkin Donuts, said: “We wanted to make it about the experience, to make it more than just tasty food.”
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
MARCH 26 2015, Almaty (The Conway Bulletin) – Cyan coloured labels proudly proclaiming “Made in Kazakhstan” have appeared in supermarkets across Kazakhstan, part of a government drive to promote local products.
Data collected by a Bulletin correspondent, though, suggested some labels may be misleading, perhaps even farcical.
At three supermarkets in central Almaty, basic agriculture goods — milk, cheese, yogurt — carrying the label did appear to be genuinely made in Kazakhstan but Italian chocolates and Belgian and French beer, all imported from Europe, also carried the label.
The Kazakh news magazine Vlast also looked into the veracity of the “Made in Kazakhstan” labels.
In its investigation, Vlast said that some ice cream and sweets sold as Kazakh had actually been made in Russia, part of the flood of Russian goods imported into Kazakhstan since the devaluation of the Russian rouble.
When Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev announced the “Made in Kazakhstan” drive earlier this year he wanted the label to stimulate the local economy. It currently needs more oversight or risks becoming meaningless.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Following a clutch of other US fast-food chains, Domino’s Pizza expects to open its first store in Tbilisi in mid-April. Geopizza, which owns the Domino’s Pizza franchise in Georgia, said it wanted to set up 12 stores within five years.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Harvey Nichols, one of London’s most famous department stores, has opened a branch in Baku, media reported. The 7-storey store underlines Azerbaijan’s draw for luxury brands and cements its place as one of the region’s top shopping destinations.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 11 2015 (The Bulletin) – Carrefour, the French supermarket group, opened their first store in Armenia. The news is a boost to Armenia which has been hit hard by a financial downturn in the region. Carrefour said it had taken three years to open its new store in Yerevan.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)