Under the yoke of sanctions, Russians switched to the “pie at home” format (VIDEO)

Bakeries and culinary shops have become a new point of growth in the Russian catering market. The audience of this market segment is already almost 40% of Russians, and the number of purchases over the year has increased by almost 30%. Since bakeries offer visitors not only bread, but also a fairly wide range of ready-made food and baked goods, this format is beginning to surpass conventional take-and-go coffee shops in popularity.

Ready-to-eat food and baked goods are gaining popularity among Russians. The size of the audience for bakeries and culinary shops in 2023 amounted to 37.8% of citizens living in Russia in cities with a population of 100,000 or more, which is 2.7 percentage points higher than the 2022 figure. This conclusion was reached by experts from the ROMIR research holding, which, at the request of Forbes, conducted a study of this segment of public catering. By bakery-culinary, ROMIR means establishments that have their own culinary production and sell independently produced products, dishes and drinks.

Over the past year, the number of transactions in bakeries increased by 27%, to 398 million receipts. The turnover of this catering segment, according to ROMIR, added 10% to the 2022 figures and amounted to 124 billion rubles. For comparison, the turnover of the market for coffee-to-go establishments in 2023 amounted to 102.7 billion rubles, and the total turnover of the public catering market in Russia in 2023 was, according to INFOLine-Analytics, 4.3 trillion rubles, growth year on year – 14%.

Are there many such establishments in Russia? The leaders in the number of points are Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the capital, the number of bakeries and culinary shops over the year (from January 2023 to January 2024) increased by 20.93%, or by 532 objects. There are currently 3,161 bakeries operating in Moscow and its surrounding suburbs.

The entry of catering into residential complexes dates back to the pandemic, adds Anton Belykh, CEO of DNA Realty. “Due to Covid restrictions, many people began to work from home, therefore, their demand shifted to shops and restaurants in their habitat,” he says. “As a result, the pool of street retail tenants in residential complexes has become more networked: every modern project necessarily has a bakery, a couple of pharmacies, two or three alcohol markets, several pickup points, and so on.”

“Fresh baked goods nearby is convenient; often in grocery retail stores, bread is not always fresh and tasty, unlike bakeries,” says Artem Filipov, director of Filipov Capital. “In addition, bakeries offer a wider variety of baked goods, as well as salads, sandwiches, etc.”