METRO Russia enabling hospitality businesses’ restart

23 June 2020

As the Covid-19 restrictions on hospitality sector are being gradually lifted in Russia, METRO Russia is taking the initiative to launch a dedicated support campaign for the hospitality businesses’ crucial restart endeavors.

METRO Russia partner initiative

METRO Russia is also launching the unprecedented support program called METRO Partner aimed at driving traffic to restaurants.

The support efforts are focused on drawing customer traffic to Horeca establishments and easing their financial pressure in the wake of the lockdown, two common challenges facing the gastro sector in their reopen.

“As a partner and supplier of the gastro industry, we understand that the key challenges for Horeca will be traffic and the availability of working capital to restore operations”, stressed Martin Schumacher, CEO of METRO Russia. “Our priority lies in building and enhancing relationships with professionals through the growth of their business. Therefore, we focus not on the transactional business, but on creating solutions and support for our customers at the moment when they need us the most.”

The total investment of all support measures running from June to August is estimated to be up to 1 billion Russian Rubles (approx. 13 million EURs). Specifically, prices in the categories of “Fresh” and “Ultra-fresh”, typically in high demand of restaurant businesses, are reduced. In addition, from May 20 to June 30, the company offers restaurant customers a cashback of 20% for purchases in July and a 30-day payment deferral.

To help drive more customer visits to restaurants, METRO Russia is also launching a program called METRO Partner looking to support as many as 3,000 restaurants nationwide for their recovery. All METRO Russia customers now get discount coupons after their shopping at METRO, for them to redeem in the restaurant of their choice. Those restaurants are able to get reimbursed for the amount of redeemed discounts in their purchasing in METRO stores.

Meanwhile only those restaurants who can guarantee the hygiene and safety in their operations and for their customers are admitted to the program. METRO Russia local store teams check and work with the restaurants and cafes to ensure their complete compliance with the government and industry guidelines.