The last warning: public catering and retail sectors require the state’s support

The managers of the largest trading enterprises and public catering chains addressed the heads of the Government and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation with a warning about the high probability of a wave of bankruptcies, expected in the market in the nearest future. The reason for the appeal was the government’s intervention in the limiting the retail trade and the refusal to conduct recreational activities during the pandemic.

In a collective appeal, signed on behalf of 58 companies, it is reported that these measures have already led to a drop in the profitability of enterprises in the amount of 20 to 90%. In the various market segments, revenue fell differently.

A number of companies, including “L'Etoile”, “Teremok”, “BNS Group”, “Cofix” and others, are already thinking about termination of the activity.

According to the applicants, the entire industry needs urgent measures of state support, taking into account the interests of citizens of the country, who are consumers of products and services.

For example, designers from the Melon Fashion Group (one of the participants in the appeal) said about the unfavorable situation that has developed Russia in the fashion industry of Russia, indicating the need for state support. The company was formed in 2005 on the basis of the “Pervomayskaya Zarya” factory in St. Petersburg and, until recently, participated in ambitious projects to turn the city on the Neva into the capital of Russian fashion. Now, the time to forget about ambitions has come. The main aim is survival.

Another member of the collective appeal to the authorities, the Ginza Project, also suffers tremendous losses in the restaurant market. As its leading manage, Maxim Polzikov, previously noted, hopes for an improvement in the situation are not expected in the very near future. Consumers, including parents with children, who are in quarantine, do not think about shopping or restaurants.

The non-food retail sector suffers from the losses not only in offline trading, but also in electronic sales.

A letter, addressed to Mikhail Mishustin, was signed by the members of leading associations. The president of the Association of Internet Commerce Companies (AKIT), Artem Sokolov, noted that although online trading has not yet detected a drop in turnover in the current situation, it will happen with a high probability. In a crisis situation, when the purchasing power of the population decreases, and consumers begin to save money, the non-food sector is the first to suffer.

Participants of the appeal consider the current measures, taken by the executive branch, to be insufficient and require a pandemia to be recognized as force majeure at the state level. According to company representatives, it is necessary to oblige property owners to change the rental system for the period of crisis. The letters also contain proposals on the introduction of a moratorium on the payment of VAT, UTII and payments to the wage fund. Whether these measures (if they are accepted by the ministry) will be able to save the business from bankruptcy, no one can say for sure. However, the desire to add their signatures to the existing ones has already been reported by more than 30 companies.