The current state of the Russian retail market is highlighted by a growing number of foreign retailers that have exited the market this year. In February, it was Finnish K-Rauta, then German Media Markt, and finally, at the end of the year, French-British Castorama. Not every company has exited; instead, German Metro Cash & Carry has taken a desperate step by starting to give out customer cards to everyone, while it used to give out those cards only to employees of legal entities that had a corresponding contract with the company.

While those examples are not of the pharmaceutical retail, the macroeconomic situation is the same for every sphere. Even though pharmaceutical drugs have their own consumption peculiarities because they are mostly urgent demand products, the Russian pharmaceutical retail is balancing between decay and stagnation.

In comparison with the big retail market, there are very few foreign retailers on the Russian pharmaceutical market. They have been entering the market very carefully, and those that did enter are either out of the market now or among the minor companies.

Despite all that, the Russian pharmaceutical market is still an attractive investment for outer players, in particular Russian non-pharmaceutical retailers. Those are not only X5 Retail Group or Magnit projects, but also online ones. The most interesting thing in this regard is the remote sales network used by Ozon since fall.

Tab 1. Top pharmacy chains on the Russian pharmaceutical retail market (Q1 – Q3 2018)