A Russian low-cost grocery chain is about to embark on ambitious expansion plans, as it seeks to open up new markets in Europe. Fix Price confirmed it would open a store in Serbia, saying market conditions and consumer demand in the Balkans country complement its business model.
The move marks a rare case of a Russian company expanding into the European market since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Russian newspaper Kommersant cited an industry source as saying the retailer plans to open “several” brick-and-mortar stores in the Balkans country in the second half of 2025. The company will face competition from other European retailers such as Dutch-Belgian-owned Delhaize, Germany’s Lidl and Slovenia’s Mercator in the Serbian market.
Fix Price was founded in 2007 and operates more than 6,500 stores across Russia and other former Soviet countries.
It also has outlets further afield, in the United Arab Emirates and Mongolia.
As of late 2024, the chain also had 44 stores in Latvia, an EU and NATO member.
In 2021, Fix Price staged a $2 billion stock market debut on the London Stock Exchange — the largest initial public offering (IPO) for a Russian retail firm.
Meanwhile, price fever panic is gripping Russia as consumers struggle to cope with an explosion in the cost of basic food items.
Food price increases are far outstripping the official inflation rate of 9.5%, leaving shoppers painfully out of pocket.
Over the last year in Russia, the cost of milk and apples have gone up by approximately 20%, cucumbers by 22%, beetroot by 32%, butter by 35%, cabbages by 42%, onions by 46% and potatoes by a whopping 90%.
And price inflation looks set to get worse over the course of this year, as Russia’s economy creaks under the strain of its wartime footing.
The Russian press has turned its attention to the growing economic crisis, openly discussing the explosion of food prices in a rare moment of factual reporting.
A front page headline in the daily newspaper the Moskovsky Komsomolets in February screamed “Price Fever”.
“In 2025 inflation promises to be a serious challenge for the country’s economy and ordinary Russians,” they write.
“Everything around us keeps jumping in price: vegetables, housing and utility bills, medicine, transport….”
The spiralling costs of food are even ruffling a few fathers among Russian politicians, some of whom are calling for the Kremlin to take drastic action.