Vugar Isaev is the owner of the Snow Queen. Who do you pay when you buy?

Evgeny Yasin:

Vadim Radaev:

Dear colleagues, the study itself was initiated by the Association of Retail Companies, our long-time partner with whom we have been cooperating for many years. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to the representative of AKORT, Vugar Isaev, who is present here.

The domestic light industry has lost many of its positions, and the question arose: is it possible to reverse the negative trends, or is there nothing that can be done? Is there a need for a conscious policy on this issue? And if necessary, what should it consist of? It seemed to us that this topic was very important. (When I say “us,” I mean co-authors - Zoya Kotelnikova is here today, Vera Danilina is gaining experience in Marseille, and our colleagues also helped us). This topic is unfairly neglected by leading economists and sociologists. Well, what would seem to be less than 1% of GDP? The truth is in household expenses, this is already about 10%. But all the same: in discussions about light industry one feels some kind of doom - well, he dies and let him die. And this is not entirely deserved.

How was our research structured? We wanted to analyze the situation in the industry, consider the main sub-sectors, their dynamics, key issues, as company leaders see them, it is imperative to take into account global experience and try to formulate recommendations, if they are possible here. We collected various data, used statistical databases, survey data, including surveys of industry executives, compared them with data from other industries, attracted data marketing research, conducted a special survey of experts. Statistical databases are primarily Rosstat, Spark, Fira-PRO, Ruslana. They took what they could from marketing research, although the main focus of the work was not on consumer behavior, but on the behavior of enterprises (it is important to note this right away). We also used the results of surveys of managers of large and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises; we could compare light industry enterprises according to data from 2005 and 2010 with the entire manufacturing industry. In this regard, I thank the head of the Institute for Analysis of Enterprises and Markets, Andrei Yakovlev, who provided us with this data. Plus, we organized a survey of experts, where the main role was played by the heads of industry enterprises - large and small. Here Andrey Razbrodin, the president of the Industry Union, helped with the organization of this matter. We brought in other materials - everything we could collect.

Now briefly about the results. Before embarking on any analysis, you need to understand that the industry is very complex, internally heterogeneous - it includes textile and clothing production, on the one hand, and the production of footwear and leather goods, on the other hand. There are only 14 sub-sectors, each sub-sector has its own history, they are far from identical. In the statistical sections, we tried to consider each sub-sector separately, but the level of detail could not be great; the amount of work was already too large.

So, in the early 1990s there was a sharp collapse in production, its volumes in light industry fell by 5-8 times. natural indicators. And as Boris Kuznetsov said in a previous discussion of our work, by all visible indicators the industry should have died in the early 1990s. But for some circumstances that are not fully understood, it survived and began to grow, not so rapidly, but relatively steadily. There were excesses during the period financial crisis, but then it recovered, and now the industry is growing steadily, still quite slowly, we are extremely far from what we were in the early 1990s.

It must be said that the industry is quite highly concentrated in different senses of the word: firstly, it is a high production concentration. Secondly, the industry is geographically concentrated - this is Ivanovo region, areas around Moscow, St. Petersburg, Stavropol, Krasnodar Territory, Dagestan, and. Every place has its own specialization. The industry is also concentrated in terms of ownership - this reflects the features of the entire Russian economy, but in an even more obvious form. The bulk of ownership is concentrated, private, independent. These are predominantly Russian owners who have a controlling stake in the vast majority of cases; foreign participation here is minimal, and, in last years it doesn't grow. Labor productivity - at the level of the average temperature in the hospital - is one and a half times lower than in other sectors of the manufacturing industry. Intra-industry differences in labor productivity are many times larger than inter-industry differences. In different areas, this difference can be 30, 40, even 100 times, and even if measured by added value, it is still 15-20 times. It may be said that those at the bottom (less productive enterprises) can hide part of their profits, but nevertheless it cannot be said that the entire industry is not productive, it is high degree differentiated. There are enterprises that are very advanced, productive and efficient, and there are enterprises that are “lying”.

Employment in the industry continues to decline, over a long period it has decreased significantly, now it continues to decrease with some fluctuations, approximately 3-4% per year. On the one hand, this is probably due to the fact that the industry is being technically re-equipped, but on the other hand, the industry is not very attractive for workers, because wages here are half lower than the Russian average, and working conditions leave much to be desired. This has been going on for many years.

The industry, like any other, needs investment, but investment activity is not high. There are data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the morale of equipment, which indicate that half of the equipment is very outdated. At the same time, we see from survey data that up to 2/3 of large and medium-sized companies do not make these investments at all, forming a cluster of stagnant enterprises. To the greatest extent, investments are needed in the textile industry, but it is there that the shortage is observed to a greater extent. The investments themselves are usually small in scale.

The country retains its domestic market, this is an advantage thanks to which the industry has survived, but we are losing it steadily, and dependence on imports continues to increase in almost all areas. Almost 100% of equipment is imported. They say that there was once domestic equipment, others say that it never existed. Cotton and wool are imported for the most part, as well as chemical fibers and threads, imports of fabrics of all types are growing, finished products, shoes. No tragedy occurs with accession to the WTO, but this factor increases dependence on imports. As a rule, customs tariffs are expected to decrease by 2-5% in 2015 or 2017, but imports are already growing. The import flows include products that are imported under illegal schemes and counterfeit products. The general trend is a gradual whitening of imports; imports are partly growing because they are emerging from shadowy gray schemes. Whatever segment we take, the pictures are approximately the same everywhere, namely, imports are growing with some acceleration, and exports at the same time are stagnating and remain at a minimum level, be it knitwear or textiles, raw materials or chemical fibers, the same picture - growing imports and stagnant exports. The difference in volume between imports and exports can be 100 times, and it continues to increase. Export-oriented activity remains minimal, 5-6% if we talk about textile clothing and footwear, this share is almost not growing. Most large and medium-sized companies send up to 90% of their products to the Russian market. In the structure of exports, the share of the CIS is growing, while the share of non-CIS countries is falling. There is a small proportion of export-oriented enterprises, they are more beautiful and efficient in all indicators, but the rest of the enterprises are closed in domestic markets, all their indicators are lower. However, many companies may have enough high level profitability.

The financial situation of enterprises is problematic, it is different. Financial dependence has increased during the crisis; it is below the accepted parameters. If we are talking about strategic investors, then according to surveys, most enterprises do not plan to attract them, and everything is harmonious here, because the investors themselves are not going to come either. Many are talking about the possibility of bankruptcy. Profitability indicators have even been growing in recent years; by international standards they are not so bad, but at the same time, investment attractiveness remains low due to a host of other parameters - company strategy, business transparency. In light industry there is also a greater problem of unfair competition in all forms. On the one hand, civilized retail is growing, according to the data received that the consumer is gradually moving to modern trading formats. But the majority of retail turnover is still provided by independent stores, through which everything you can imagine goes - counterfeit products, parallel imports, and goods that are put into circulation with all sorts of violations. How big is the shadow turnover? It is impossible to calculate exactly; there are different estimates - from 10% to 50%. In any case, this share is very high, including the import component. Now that the Common Economic Space has been formed and the Customs Union has been formed, these risks are increasing, especially in the part of Kazakhstan, not Belarus. Share foreign trade between countries, instead of growing, it suddenly fell, how can that be? In fact, she hasn't fallen, she's just being transformed into a different form. In addition, counterfeit products are moving to the Internet, to the global trash heap; this is one of the new trends. I will add that clothing increasingly sold online is the leading sector in terms of the share of counterfeit products.

Entrepreneurial activity in the industry is not high enough that expectations of support from the state in all forms are high. At the same time, government support is present, almost every fourth enterprise receives it in one form or another, but everyone is dissatisfied, they say that it is not effective, everyone complains.

What problems arise? They are formulated by the heads of enterprises themselves. These problems are clustered into 4 groups. Taxes and macroeconomic stability always come first. Secondly, the unpredictability of government regulation, the opacity of business, and institutional factors. Third, administrative barriers - customs, land, building permits, etc. Fourth, the underdevelopment of production infrastructure - electricity, transport, communications.

During the years of the financial crisis, additional problems grew: deterioration of market conditions, which recovered quite quickly, and deterioration of lending conditions - the cost of loans, collateral requirements, etc.

Now international experience. I said that international experience in this work is not a ritual part: they say, let’s “pin” international experience here. In fact, one of the key conclusions is that the industry has long since become a global industry, about 40 years ago. Without understanding how it is organized in the world, no serious problems can be solved. There are a number of economic and sociological theories that explain all this using empirical material. The first is the classic of world-systems analysis - Immanuel Wallerstein, who shows how the territorial division of labor developed, the theories of global supply chains that emerged from his thoughts, a lot of works on the clothing and textile industries that represent typical example buyer-managed supply chain. An important specification is the theory of the new trade revolution, this is Gary Hamilton and his associates, who showed how the role of global trading networks in organizing production has increased. From these points of view, an interesting thing is happening: the role of trading capital has again increased, as in the era of mercantilism of the 17th century, but now it is organized differently. Then goods were moving, now production is moving. This happened after the Second World War, when 2 types of companies came to the fore - companies managing international brands and global retail chains. Neither one nor the other owns production directly, but organizes production and supply chains. They played a decisive role in the formation of the global supply chains that structure the industry. Then, over the past decades, there have been wave-like territorial movements of production - first from developed countries to developing countries, then, as they industrialize, to less developed countries, there is a wave of so-called calico industrialization, as it was called back in the 19th century. As development occurs, production organization models move; as industrializing countries industrialize, they move to more developed models associated with higher added value, fullpackage source, etc. More primitive, labor-intensive and less capital-intensive industries are shifting to less developed countries. Now there will be a slide on which you can see all this. A model arose in Europe into which many of our former “brothers” fit into - Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic. This is called off-site processing of semi-finished products, which is re-imported to Germany, Italy, France. At first, production moved to Japan, then soon to Northeast Asia - Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and from the mid-80s to China, Southeast Asia. But then the movement did not stop, but continued, moving to South Asia. Walmart is increasingly moving its orders from China to Bangladesh, and is already one of its largest customers. Moves partially to Central and Eastern Europe moves.

It's a shame that Russia is missing from this picture; we are left out of the game. No matter to what extent it is beneficial, Russia was not included in this picture. Further in the work you will find three cases - China, Türkiye and Germany. These cases, firstly, are important in themselves, secondly, they are important for us, and thirdly, they are very different. China has an entrance from below, from the side of labor-intensive technologies, Germany has an entrance from above, and Turkey has an entrance from the side. China gets a lot of attention, but this experience is not fully understood. Everyone says that labor costs are low there, although this is no longer entirely true, the state there is stable, the yuan is stable, the state has invested in infrastructure, and exports are being stimulated. But in addition to all these important internal factors, which include strong consumer market, there are also external factors that often go unnoticed - the Chinese economy opened up, and foreign capital came there from the same Northeast Asia. By the way, half of the successful exporters who are expanding globally are not Chinese, they belong to foreign owners.

In this regard, the history of Walmart is interesting, on which entire books have been written. The first stage, when Walmart began to squeeze domestic American suppliers under the slogan “Buy Domestic,” they were pushed to Hong Kong and China in pursuit of lower costs. Then Walmart goes directly to China, they organize most of the supplies here, begin to regulate production, and at the third stage they enter there with a distribution network, now there are more than 400 shopping facilities for 2013. This is the story.

Turkey's experience is completely different. There, too, the state played a serious role, there was qualified work force, they tried to integrate into other parts of the supply chain and paid a lot of attention to institutional conditions favorable to business.

Germany entered the global supply chain from the top, there was a developed industry that has shrunk several times, but is now focused on high-quality, high-value-added products, heavily on products such as technical textiles, and all labor-intensive and low-value-added processes. cost are being pushed out to other countries, including to our brothers in the former social bloc. Another picture showed how you can achieve success in the light industry in different ways. Unfortunately, Russia does not fit into any scheme.

The last question is what to do. Conventionally, all measures can be divided into support measures, meaning how we can maintain what already exists, and measures to transform the industry, if we want some breakthroughs and qualitative changes, not just survival, but a different qualitative state. It cannot be said that nothing was done at all in this regard. This slide lists the measures that were aimed at supporting the industry, I will not list them, you can see them on the screen. But no matter who you ask from knowledgeable people, they all unanimously say that these measures are in no way sufficient, they do not change the situation in any way. What support measures are expected? Again, according to the surveys of business executives we use here, taxes are again at the top. Reduce taxes, freeze tariffs of natural monopolies, stabilize the ruble exchange rate. It is interesting that, in contrast to restricting imports, only a small part of those surveyed were in favor of stimulating exports – “not up to it.” So, firstly, taxes, secondly, internal factors, associated with our internal existence, and not with some kind of inclusion in world processes. Meanwhile, the situation has long been defined as follows: if this industry wants to survive and even develop, we can come from different directions, but if we do not fit into global supply chains, then historically our prospects are zero, and not just doubtful.

When they say: let's reduce taxes, let's provide subsidies and benefits, then a number of these proposals are very reasonable, many of them will really support enterprises, but at the same time, market participants and experts themselves say that these measures are unlikely to help dramatically. Trying to solve all these problems administratively will help even less: for example, forcing retail chains to display at least 30% of domestic goods on their shelves and thus solve the problems of light industry. The thing is quite primitive and stupid.

Instead, companies need to help reduce costs. Of course, you can’t help everyone here; a certain proportion of companies will eventually be forced to die, but there is also a proportion of effective companies; they can still be helped. After Putin’s speech in Vologda in March 2013, there was a surge of interest in the industry - government orders were increased, and I believe that there are reasons for this. Russian law enforcement agencies can dress Russian companies. Another thing is that it is not entirely clear whether they will be able to do this (however, this is a separate topic). Complaints about corruption, an age-old topic, immediately begin. Some of the plots are unclear - there was a story about school uniforms, that everyone should wear national clothes, but the outcome of this idea is vague. Apparently it will not be possible to dress schoolchildren in domestic clothes “for 26 reasons.”

What sources of transformation should we look for? Returning to the topic that most of discussions focus on internal factors. They say: we have a consumer market, developed competencies, we need to support this, we need to recreate the lost raw material base. Our idea, which may seem controversial, is that we won’t be able to hold out as long as the role external factors continues to be ignored - both in terms of attracting capital and in terms of stimulating exports. Without this, there will be no qualitative transformation in principle.

The sacramental question of whether it is necessary to restore the raw material base is also relevant. Last year, everything was already offered: cotton - in Astrakhan, wool - in the North Caucasus, flax - in the Tver region, we began to export hemp many centuries ago. After talking with experts, we got the impression that we can’t count on this. Colleagues present here can explain this in more detail. Cotton actually once grew in Astrakhan, but this topic is completely unpromising economically. The problem with wool is that the meat sector is much more promising, but high-quality wool has never been available. Most of all, it’s a shame for flax; I thought that we could actually produce flax. And who needs it? It is very expensive and difficult to paint. It is better to make bags from other, synthetic materials. And as a result, this topic turns out to be unpromising. It seems that we will not be able to overcome the import of raw materials; building in from this end is not very promising.

The next sentence is also quite controversial. We have many viable textile enterprises, they can be developed, but at the same time they need to be reoriented towards the production of synthetic fabrics. There are positive factors here - the demand for this business is growing globally, domestic demand will also grow, there are a variety of industries that need them, there are different categories of consumers. On the other hand, we have cheap domestic oil raw materials, which are not available in China. Of course, everything requires investment, but here there may be faster payback periods. If successful, we are talking about products with higher added value.

Supporting export-oriented industries is the second. The problem is that focusing on the domestic market will inevitably lead to the loss of this market, and therefore the entire industry. It is necessary to develop measures to attract foreign investment. It is clear that no one will come running immediately, even if some measures are announced. But if certain signals are sent to the institutional environment, if institutional conditions are streamlined, some changes could be achieved. We need to support those who are capable and who can advance somewhere. Many sensible things are known what to do and how to do it - simplifying procedures, supporting technological innovation.

Last slide - fight with unfair competition in all types. This topic remains very sensitive. Joining the WTO, as indicated here, will not solve this problem. Customs and post-customs control is not effective enough. We have separate work on the markets for counterfeit products. The conclusion is this: if these measures are not strengthened, then all the reforms, even if they are good and effective, will not lead to serious changes. No matter what you do, if you are selling products of dubious origin that are 40% cheaper, it is difficult to win this fight. Thank you.

Evgeny Yasin:

Dear friends, 3 questions for the speaker. You give 3 questions, and then we move on to the opponents.

Dmitry Zimin:

Please tell me, you said that since the beginning of the 90s, light industry has gone into the shadows. I understand you correctly that until the 90s it was competitive. It used to be good, then it became bad. This is good - what is this?

Vadim Radaev:

The industry was competitive in a limited space. That is, there was a domestic market, she worked for the domestic market. Since there was no serious competition from outside, it provided for the rather primitive needs of its fellow citizens - “cheerful sitchik”, rose-colored sheets. Everyone praised it. About shoes: many women shudder when they remember how they put them on. In terms of the number of pairs, production grew rapidly. There was a story connected with our international cooperation. We were competitors in terms of raw materials, and the finished products were generally not of very high quality. In the 90s, this too was cut off, all former connections fell apart. Many of our partners in the socialist camp generally integrated into the system, but we remained in place.

Dmitry Zimin:

Well, we once had light industry?

Vadim Radaev:

It was not competitive, it was planned. Indeed, you can read “The Russian Factory” by M. Tugan-Baranovsky, a wonderful book about the nineteenth century. Then the peasants really raised everything, and they also consumed what they produced.

Andrey Razbrodin:

I'll give you a reference. Now our conversation is going on like in Zhvanetsky’s joke, let’s argue about the rise of Hollywood without having seen a single film. Until a certain time, our textile and light industries were competitive. There was a surge when Kosygin was involved in it, there were absolutely competitive factories in a number of areas, not to mention the fact that the period of the early 20th century is not our socialist past, the period of the New Economic Policy, etc. By inertia, everything was competitive, everything was produced and even exported, as you know, most of the enterprises that are still smoking are based on old enterprises in best places old Russian cities. They belonged to the Morozovs, Prokhorovs, Vakhrushins, etc. A lot of names that had medals at Parisian exhibitions, the best fabrics, know-how in machine tools. After the mid-1970s, the situation began to become more complicated and came to the point that we remember today with some irony.

I want to say one more thing at the end, so that our discussion does not go in the wrong direction, I want everyone to understand that the textile industry is not panties and socks, the textile industry is the entire defense industry, all enterprises in the dairy and chemical industries. I will explain: the fact is that all filters are made using the textile method, this is a non-woven industry. To solve the road program today, the textile industry will play one of the most important roles. The whole layered cake of technical textiles that is made today in modern road construction - textile production, technical fabrics, technical textiles. This is the direction that was noted in the work, what Germany is focusing on. The same products with high added value. This is based on technical, chemical and synthetic threads. Apart from the fact that you and I often say “fiberglass” - final product This one is made using a textile method, which requires a developed modern textile industry. Today, not a single high-speed train in the world runs without special textile fittings. Today, iron reinforcement does not solve the issues of flexibility and ductility of rails, maintaining high speeds and bending when turning. I can ask you one simple question: there are a lot of women sitting here. Women's pad - what is it? This is the production of the textile industry, inside and out. Although there is such a joke - in Russia it does not apply to the products of the textile industry.

Evgeny Yasin:

Andrey Valentinovich, I will no longer give the floor to you as a speaker.

Andrey Stolyarov:

The comments say that the share of foreign investment is very small, but at the same time it is necessary to attract them. But most foreign products are already produced in Russia - take Procter&Gamble. Everything is done in Russia. My question is: what is the reason for this? foreign capital not interested in the Russian experience? From the point of view of what concepts should we consider the issue? In Russia, an additional cluster for the production of foreign cars was created, if we are talking about cars. This industry was created on the basis of petrochemical plants, going back to Procter & Gamble. Textile industry - is this real? One more question: there are very different enterprises - more and less successful. Can any conclusions be drawn from enterprises that are doing more or less well?

Vadim Radaev:

Capital is not coming in because the industry is not considered promising. On the one hand, people believe that it is dying and will die, we will consume Asian products. On the other hand, they are being overly hyped about this Russian stories- It’s hard to work here institutionally. Thirdly, this is not the only case, but many companies remain closed, they do not intend and do not want to see any foreigners here, they want to sit on what they have - in case there is a government order, they just work for local markets and hold out. Investors also do not see any advantage for themselves. If there is no capital, the collapse will happen sooner than many think. Many people, working for local markets, think that no one will reach here.

Regarding successful enterprises, we have a section where successful stories were analyzed, in the press there were interviews with successful enterprises - RalfRinger, GloriaJeans, situations where companies are very successful. But there are not very many such situations.

Evgeny Yasin:

That's it, no more questions! I said there are only three questions. Let's go for the third one.

Sergey Peregudov:

You mostly said “need, must.” But at the same time, you said that a number of negative aspects need to be removed. Still, is your forecast the most general for the industry? You said that there is a core that will need to be developed and that will develop, probably this will happen. What will happen to the periphery? The core is about 1/3, and 2/3 - what will happen to that? How will the entire industry be positioned taking into account our situation?

Vadim Radaev:

Thanks for this question. The periphery, if we give it a non-territorial meaning, will die. China won't stop. Here it is absolutely pointless to compete in segments with low-price products; we will still lose. The question is, is it possible to save at least the core? A certain number of fairly efficient enterprises positioned in the middle segment are trying to provide good quality products. How these advanced companies will develop depends on the policy of the state, whether it sends the right signal. The point is not that they will start providing some subsidies or benefits; will some kind of state policy be developed? This is how the question stands now. What will this policy be like? If we want any qualitative transformation, we cannot do without this factor.

Evgeny Yasin:

Generally speaking, this is amazing. The fate of light industry, especially textiles, amazed me because I expected its complete cessation. Once upon a time there were specific circumstances that created incentives to penetrate the Central Asian markets, the Chinese market, because there was not machine production, but handicraft production. Russian products conquered Manchuria, etc. This business was moving well, everything was private, there were no state companies and there was not very much foreign capital. I expected that they should all collapse, and when it turned out that they did not collapse, but 20% of the volume was preserved, I thought that if they could maintain this, it was a big victory. This means that in some areas they will rise to a level where they will be able to compete, and compete for domestic consumers. From my point of view, talking about flax and so on, I expected the situation to be worse. Now I see that the industry is alive, of course, it complains, demands a reduction in taxes, says that they demand bribes, but this is usual, it is approximately the same system in all markets. The rescue was largely facilitated by government demand, I don’t know exactly to what extent, but it should be so. I think that there will not be much growth here, but for the situation in which the Russian manufacturing industry is in general, these are not bad results at all. It would seem that 20% of the Soviet volume!

Now let's speak to opponents. First I give the floor to Isaev Vugar Mirzakhanovich.

Vugar Isaev:

Thank you. Let me start with the fact that since we were the customers of this work, we will evaluate this work in general based on two main criteria: professionalism and relevance. From the point of view of professionalism, the work is very highly professional; perhaps, in the short presentation that Vadim Valerievich made, it was not possible to fully show this. The key thing is that when talking about light industry, it must be divided into the sub-sectors of which it consists. There is the production of technical textiles, which is a completely separate area. If you look at the figures that are in the works (Vadim Valerievich asked the association to increase the circulation of this book, I think that we will find this opportunity), everyone will be able to see that the situation with technical textiles is in some ways even better than with that area of ​​light industry that produces fabrics. For the entire audience, I want to make it clear that this is the first and key difference that we really just need to keep in mind so as not to confuse each other.

Returning to the question that Andrey has just raised about gaskets, unfortunately, according to our classifier they fall into another industry, not light industry. There is a classifier that classifies enterprises that operate in various industries. Unfortunately, it turns out that many data are based on the effect that is caused by the fact that one enterprise can declare one type of activity as one type of activity, but in fact carry out another type of activity. It appears simultaneously in several reports that the Ministry uses economic development or the Ministry of Industry and Trade, this is a completely separate topic. This is another point regarding the correct professional approach.

There is an institutional problem regarding classification. For that part of the light industry that is engaged in the production of consumer products, from fabrics to finished products, there is a prospect, moreover, the book clearly shows that world experience is extremely important in this matter. In principle, the entire chain of production of consumer goods is structured as follows: the beginning of the chain is the chemical industry, which produces threads and fibers, very complex technologies are involved there, then comes the production of the fabrics themselves. The concentration of companies that produce fabrics in order to subsequently produce consumer goods in any country, be it South Korea, China, India or America, is very high. The next stage of the chain is clothing industry, it is low-consolidated, it is low-capital intensive, there is no unique opportunity for any enterprise to occupy a high market share, there is always a huge number of small and medium-sized enterprises. This, too, may not have been adequately addressed in Vadim Valerievich’s short report.

Now the key point is that we are talking about the structure of the market, about the part that concerns consumer goods. About the changes that began to occur after the Second World War, when a consumer culture began to emerge. A situation arose when the political elites did not want to fight, it was necessary to clothe and feed the people, to give them the opportunity to be happy. At the same time, he walked at a very high speed scientific and technical progress. One way or another, in addition to all the materials that had been used up to that point in the production of consumer goods, all sorts of artificial materials began to appear, which made it possible for the same unit of national currency to produce a certain product, a dress, that could be worn by one woman. Everything taken together has led to development: the speed of logistics is developing, the consumption market is growing, global world networks are beginning to emerge, which represent such a specific fusion of commercial and industrial capital. Initially, they work as trading capital, the essence is an unequal exchange, they were produced in one place and sold in another place. These networks are expanding so quickly, first within one country, then the corresponding region, expanding to neighboring countries, then to other regions of the world. It is necessary to create such a product and at such a price that it can be sold in countries with different income levels. You need, as a global network, to sell something in a country where the average income is $2000, and also sell something in a country where the average income is $200. Everything is pushing towards the fact that natural materials are being squeezed out, which cannot become cheaper due to the fact that there is inflation of currencies and all natural materials.

So, the professional part: the work is highly professional, all the main areas are clearly highlighted. Regarding relevance: 10 years ago all this would not have made any sense. Why is this relevant now? First (I’m talking only about consumer goods), we really have a relatively civilized culture of consumption of such goods. About 50% is concentrated in large shopping centers and malls, in large cities - even 70%. Today, in all shopping centers there are foreign major retail chains that sell clothing; there are 15-20 Russian chains that operate in exactly the same way, in a white legal field. This is a key difference from the situation 10 years ago, when there were no players working in the legal field at all. Today there is a significant portion of the market living in the legal field. A huge number of small and medium-sized Russian chains - 5-20 stores selling clothing, which live in a gray counterfeit field. It doesn’t matter whether they sell products in shopping centers or markets, the presence of a legal field allows the state to use certain mechanisms that allow them to evaluate industry averages and legalize the rest of the market in a normal targeted manner. This is not to say that they are not doing this; since last year, the Customs Inspectorate has become involved and is doing this; associations of companies have appeared that come out and work together with the state. If we already have 30% of the legal field, let’s make the other part legal, both the Federal Tax Service and the Federal Customs Service are involved, there will be a lot of changes.

Now the last moment. Why will all this lead to what Evgeniy Grigorievich said? Why will this manifest itself under the conditions of the very actions that are proposed in this work? In my opinion, if we talk about existing structure companies that currently operate in that part of the light industry dealing with consumer goods, then 70-80% of enterprises are completely uncompetitive, do not understand what they are doing, and therefore demand lower taxes, closing borders, etc. Help, of course, is needed, but to a limited number - the top ten groups of enterprises that work meaningfully and have already shown their successful experience. Some subsidiary measures are possible on a competitive basis.

Attracting foreign investment. Logistically, we are in such a situation that the last surge that occurred in Eastern Europe, you may have thought it was a natural movement, but there the increase in the production of consumer goods occurred because the main European chains such as H&M, Zara, Inditex, logistically transferred part of production to Eastern Europe due to the fact that logistics are cheaper and labor is comparable in price to China. From this point of view, our country is in a unique situation: we have raw materials - starting with hydrocarbons, cellulose, lactose, everything from which complex threads are made, this is the first thing. Secondly, logistically we have sufficient proximity to Europe, no worse than Turkey, proximity to the main players and main consumption markets exists. In general, we are located well logistically; we have raw materials. If we had enough enterprises that produced fabrics for the further production of clothing, then sewing production would arise automatically due to the fact that all those networks that now operate in Russian shopping centers, be they foreigners or Russian retail chains, it would be beneficial to have this in Russia. Unfortunately, now this is not economically viable, because the fabric has to be imported, and then everything turns out absurd.

From my point of view, the work is both relevant and professional. I really hope that, including the support of the Union of Light Industry Manufacturers in the person of Andrei Valentinovich, we will be able, on the basis of this work, to make changes to that very stillborn strategy for the development of light industry until 2020, a document that is essentially unrealizable in any way, to reorient on the basis of this work on this strategy, get support from the prime minister.

Evgeny Yasin:

Thank you. Please, Andrey Alexandrovich.

Andrey Yakovlev:

After Vugar Mirzakhanovich’s speech, what I will say has already been said. I agree with the assessments of the work, I will speak not as a customer, but as a colleague. This is an important product with a focus on the development of the real sector. We had a discussion a week ago at our institute, where we expressed different thoughts, but, returning to the broader context of the work, the very fact of ordering this work from the ACORT association is a rather significant point in this whole story. What you said about comparison with 10 years ago. I remember another work well, it was also done by Vadim Radaev and his colleagues, commissioned by the RATEK association. The situation was such that then a certain core of medium-sized companies also emerged, which were leading players in the Russian market, then they began to face competition from outside and also experienced competition from below, from “gray-black” competitors. It's a good sign that your industry has reached this stage. But we are talking about industry, not trade. One of the key issues for the development of this sector is related to the extent to which our country’s industry is ready for some collective action. Everything that we are discussing now is not decided by enterprises alone and is not decided by the state. The industry is complex and multifaceted, and what Andrei Stolyarov spoke about with the question about success stories, this may be missing in the project, some understanding of how the best Russian enterprises, despite all the chaos of the 90s and the problems of the 2000s, were able to find your niche. How did they do it? In the future, the state not only must bear the money, it must, to some extent, begin to regulate entry into the market, protect the market from unfair competition, and must, for its part, help interact between key stakeholders in the value chain, which includes trading companies, and textile enterprises, clothing enterprises, help them together not only overcome the problem, but find diplomatic solutions. It is important to cross the border of your private interest, this project in many ways encourages this.

Returning to foreign experience, we are not the first in this aspect. Especially after the seminar, which took place two weeks ago, I sent Vadim links to works about business associations in developing countries, because there are quite different attitudes towards business associations in the economic literature; a skeptical approach is often manifested, in the spirit of Olson, that these are groups interests that pursue their own private interests to the detriment of everyone else. But what do studies in developing countries show? That in conditions of imperfect institutions, such private interest groups can generate public goods, but it is important that they are heard by the state, and that the state provides incentives. For those countries that we looked at, the fact of negotiations on accession to the WTO played a very significant role, when the state needed more detailed information about market sectors, they were ready to meet with associations in order to obtain necessary information, at the same time hearing them about possible changes in market regulation. We somewhat missed this stage with the WTO. But the story doesn't end there. One of the key issues is the creation of conditions and incentives for collective action and cooperation between leading enterprises in the industry itself. How this will happen is the next question.

Vugar Isaev:

Evgeny Grigorievich, allow me to answer one question, it is very important. Regarding successful experience. Let's take the success of the GloriaJeans company: the company's turnover for 2007 is $140 million, of which $100 million is wholesale, $30 million is its own retail. At that time, the main production was that which took place in Russia. Last year the company's turnover amounted to 27 billion rubles, this is retail. In a word, the answer is simple - only those who go into retail, only these enterprises, are successful. Because there are no other channels for a manufacturer to become successful other than going into their own retail. At the same time, an interesting thing arises - 70% of what GloriaJeans now sells in its stores is not produced in Russia, it is produced in China. This happens everywhere. Any large manufacturing company that goes and starts opening its network, after some point in time, and you have a network brand, a contradiction arises between production and the requirements of the network. Network requirements - building under target audience, you begin to produce not for yourself, simply because you have production capacity, but to produce where it is profitable. In a word, the answer is simple - production itself as production is in no way capable of becoming successful without turning into commercial capital. This is what world experience shows.

Evgeny Yasin:

I want to tell you a story about my sheepskin coat. I bought it in 1987 in New York, on Russian street. In short, I bought it and asked where everything was done from the seller, my fellow countryman. He explained that the skin itself was from Norway, the whole thing was processed in Egypt, it was still circulating somewhere, and finally, it was assembled in New York in some utility room before being taken to the sales department. The main thing I was interested in was, where is the company? He does not know. This is an international economy, although it was in New York. I guess we're living the same life now. I have no doubt that our light industry will remain, but I don’t know what it will be like. Intertwined with production, trade, with the formation of brands, the creation of those things that do not belong to the metaphysical phenomenon that is associated with creating a mood. This is also an important part. We'll see, but in itself, Radaev's idea to take on an area that has not attracted much attention from any of the researchers is very fruitful. I'm sorry, colleagues, excuse me, but this is how it is. I’m very sorry to punish Andrei Valentinovich, so I’ll give you 5 minutes.

Andrey Razbrodin:

Thank you. I'll start with work too. In our Union, our attitude towards work is definitely positive; we consider it very voluminous, looking at the problem from different angles. Of course, the work has flaws that are associated with the current level of statistical data that can be obtained and the time during which it was done. Nevertheless, the main issues and problems have been revealed, and we can generally agree with the strategic conclusions. It’s just that the way they sounded in the work, they are more diverse, more voluminous, more comprehensive and of a higher quality than it might seem from the report sounded today. Firstly, I would like to thank my colleagues from the AKORT Association for ordering this work, everyone who did this work, it must be continued, there are certain points in it that are quite raw, I don’t want to continue a long discussion now.

Now about some of the measures and methods of strategy that need to be chosen in order for the industry to develop normally. Turkey, China and Germany were covered here; in all three countries there are methods that, based on the structure, have been revealed and still need to be revealed further in the continuation of work. The methods of the three countries can guide us.

From the point of view of some points, monetary support. You see, the situation is that there is a statistical survey, etc., in the work, but some digital aspects are missing. Let me give you an example. What is included in statistics today? For 2013, the industry paid total taxes according to the report tax office about 22 billion rubles, but this does not include all payments under the insurance fund. Due to the fact that statistics on insurance funds are shown in a separate column. When we looked at this situation, we saw that the industry was paying 56 billion rubles. for 2013, such a markup. As our first president said, “this is where the dog has rummaged.” When the Unified Social Tax was replaced, the tax increase in 2011 amounted to 18 billion rubles, 22 billion in 2012, when some industrial growth was shown. 18 billion increase in one year! This is the first point. The state has an obligation to return this money in a certain way; it was withdrawn when the crisis was not yet over, the industry had just overcome the consequences of the crisis, it was plunged into the crisis in the most direct way. This can then be considered and recalculated.

The second point is when we talk about smuggling and counterfeiting. What it is? This is what deprives a normal civilized, high-quality manufacturer of the normal structure of his budget - normal profit, profitability, etc. When we talk about the profitability that we have, up to 50% of the total market volume is smuggling and counterfeit goods. These are the ones who don't pay taxes and the things that aren't counted. This is artificially created cost and competition. The most important conclusion that we talked about with Vugar Mirzakhanovich is the need to restore normal structure and balance. As much as possible, reduce this level to at least an acceptable level - no higher than 10-12%, which allows you to not put such pressure on the industry. This is the first and the main task states. If this succeeds in full, then the industry already has a future even in its current structure. The outside world is changing, prices in China are changing, paradigms are changing in the textile and light industry.

Alexandra Moskovskaya:

Very short comprehension questions. First question: Vadim spoke about the fall of the weak, does it mean that in some segment of light industry there are no chances at all for relatively low-tech small enterprises or cooperatives to enter the market? In previous waves of development, it was small businesses in China that actively entered the market.

Second question: regarding counterfeit goods. The question is whether it could be that the reduction in counterfeit goods will lead to the decline of some segments of production, and not to their prosperity.

Third question: it was said here that any import is bad, it is better to produce at home. We know that cotton has always been produced in Uzbekistan, a beneficial connection for Russia. In Russia, production will still be more expensive. Are there any opportunities for technological breakthroughs in any other segment, pads, sterile dressings, which are classified as medical products, based on examples from other countries. This is not very clear.

One more question: do we have the prospect of transferring Russian production to other countries - to India, China, Uzbekistan, or somewhere else? Thank you.

Vadim Radaev:

If possible, I will briefly answer the first and last questions. The average ones were not for me. Regarding whether it is possible to enter the market. If there are low barriers to entry somewhere? Small sewing production: basement, several sewing machines, hourly labor, some are not registered at all, taxes are not paid - everything is cheap and cheerful, please, nice deal. What does good or bad mean? The question was: is it possible to enter any market segment? Can! Especially with simple industries, but you can’t get in - you need technology and competencies.

The last question is about the prospects for the transfer of Russian production - this is already happening. Here we have integrated completely. First China, then Bangladesh.

Evgeny Yasin:

Are jeans really made in Bangladesh?

Andrey Razbrodin:

Not only do they produce jeans there, that’s just the name of the company. There, just like in the Snow Queen, it’s not just winter clothes.

About counterfeit: if you repeat the questions to me consistently, I will answer you.

Alexandra Moskovskaya:

The point was that reducing counterfeit products would increase the possibility of domestic production. Could it turn out that if only counterfeiting allows you to reduce costs, as soon as it becomes legal and transparent, it will displace part of the production.

Andrey Razbrodin:

Unfortunately, here we often substitute the concepts of counterfeit and smuggling. When people say “counterfeit,” they understand that it is a pure fake that was produced on our territory. The counterfeit that we have is a fake, not produced in Russia. This has nothing to do with the Russian production market, this is all about the countries of the Near Abroad, this is Ukraine, this is China. At the same time, it is smuggled, according to a gray scheme, when taxes are not paid. A decrease in this share will lead to the equalization of the economic situation for Russian enterprises. A more realistic price ratio will appear. This is the first thing.

Secondly, counterfeit and smuggling carries with it a lack of quality, which is what we are faced with today. We must understand that only the level of our own production allows us to control this quality. What is not available on the Russian market today is voluntary certification. Certification is destroyed today, only in the form of technical regulations, this is a safety group, does not include a comparative analysis of two things. We brought it from China, it costs less, but we are comparing completely different things in quality, only a professional can say this. There is currently no voluntary certification system, which exists in the West (it is noted in the section about Germany), we are just approaching this.

Alexandra Moskovskaya:

There was also a question about breakthrough technologies.

Andrey Razbrodin:

I have to slightly disagree with my colleague here. Vugar said that technical textiles are technical textiles, and everything else is consumer goods. In fact, the industry structure is not that simple. Why did the Germans single out technical textiles? This is their basic direction, based on the latest know-how, high added value. They set technical textiles as the main paradigm of their current development. Within the industry, many enterprises produce household products using technical textile material. That's how most businesses are. There are also highly specialized enterprises that produce only one product and do nothing else. But in general, this is a declassified situation for enterprises. Switching to synthetic fibers, to those raw materials that are inherent to us, in which we have a certain reserve, in which we do not have a certain processing. We have the first three stages, then two are missing, then the eighth and ninth. Here's our situation. Having made this redistribution, we come to a different situation - we obtain our own raw materials for our own needs. Here we have traditional textiles and knitwear. We import the same raw materials for pads and diapers. By fundamentally changing this paradigm, we will have raw materials here. We import this raw material in very large volumes. If we do it ourselves, we will get economic efficiency.

Elena Guseva:

I wanted to ask whether some planning and state support should exist in this area, because even the same global networks see the creation of certain holdings. Somewhere there are resources, somewhere there are empty production facilities. What about massive job creation? If you have massive jobs, you will have salaries, and consumption will increase significantly. Planning is still needed. Thank you.

Andrey Razbrodin:

We entered the WTO and are saying that in this situation we must equalize the starting conditions, we must be equal to some extent. The current conditions are not equal. If you read the work about support measures, you will see that China’s support measures are such in volume that it will make your hair stand out. Huge support measures, tens of billions of yuan, support the textile and light industry.

Mark Levin:

I have two general questions. There was such a factory in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was the leading light industry enterprise of the USSR, they did nothing themselves, they bought needles in Sweden, machine tools in Germany, cotton in Egypt and paints in Finland, and gave out the main products to their workers so as not to stole. How does such a factory live today? Do we know anything about this? What happened in countries like Latvia.

Second question. At one time, it was customary for us to complain that everything is wrong with us, that the workers are not like that. What is the German light industry complaining about? Did she complain about anything at all?

Third question. About some exact links in the technological and production chain. And what does it mean? There are no people who can build these links? Is production too complex compared to pipe production? Thank you.

Andrey Razbrodin:

I can give examples of dozens of factories, including Lithuanian factories, from which equipment was exported, including to Russia; these were the highest quality and most advanced factories in Soviet times. Here they made money: the Bryansk plant is working, almost all the equipment for it was taken out of Lithuania, it lives. The Lithuanian enterprise is over. To a large extent, light industry has sank there.

Vugar Isaev:

We seem to have gathered to look for a solution, but I have a feeling that instead of supporting Vadim Valerievich for the work that has been done, we will be surprised and admired by what representatives of the Retail Trade Association companies are doing. We finally do something and believe in doing it.

Andrey Razbrodin:

We all correctly say that there is a market, but it is already well known what a market unregulated by external regulators leads to. What is the situation in Europe today? Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia were among the countries that, supporting the European Union, found themselves on the margins, including economic ones. In other countries, textile enterprises are being returned and new textile enterprises are being built. This is especially true in Spain, worse in Italy, where taxes have recently been greatly increased, this part is very sensitive. Spaniards are given huge preferences at the state level. IN last year I visited two factories and they invited me. These are textile enterprises, 100% equipped, but if they operate under the same conditions as enterprises in the EU must operate, they are not my competitors. But they have a huge number of preferences from the state, and here is the answer to your question. Market or regulated market?

Evgeny Yasin:

I must tell you, dear friends, that I invited Vadim Valerievich and his colleagues in this work precisely to demonstrate how the market works. I specifically said several times that, in theory, light industry should have completely failed after the Soviet experience. Remember, even in Soviet times we did not want to wear Soviet shoes; we were ready to spend everything, but not mess with our quality. Please note, it is an interesting experience that the market begins to work, develops certain lines of behavior, structures, techniques. After that you don't know anything about how it happens. Andrei Valentinovich, of course, knows, Vugar Mirzakhanovich also knows, but they don’t know enough to tell us. And the atmosphere of discussion, which begins at the planning meeting in the morning, is then somehow implemented. But it works, it's kind of a secret. When Zyuganov asks: “Where are our factories? Where have they gone?” And so on many issues. What really worries me is that there are a lot of enterprises located in small towns and settlements, located somewhere far away in terms of transport, but which still live and lived 20 years ago. Today at the academic council they discussed the issue of a dissertation, the author of which lives in Tambov and works at Tambov University. It turns out that there is a whole layer of enterprises that sent reviews from doctors of science, wrote all the reviews, which clearly live in some kind of special world that belongs to another planet. In the same way, there are sectors of the economy and industry that somewhere in Uryupinsk live quietly, they do not participate in the general discussion. The fact that the market works and develops an area of ​​communication, the larger the field of experience, the more people are integrated into all this. What needs to be fixed there, people are starting to ask? Demolish taxes immediately! Change the boss there, remove the plumbing inspection. In fact, this is all inevitable. It is no coincidence that people talk about taxes; everyone expects taxes. But if you ask him: “How is your relationship with the district committee?” True, now the head of the administration and the tax inspectorate are there, he won’t tell.

Vugar Isaev:

Here I will contradict Evgeniy Grigorievich a little, if you will allow me. We talk all the time and forget that the environment is changing. There are companies that work in whitewash and pay all taxes. Paying all taxes is completely normal, everyone should do it. Yes, there is a period of primary capital accumulation during which not a single company paid any taxes. Then, little by little, some companies begin to pay taxes due to the fact that they dream of opening more stores or doing some other business. Regarding the question of the human factor in the market, this is real, these are not mushrooms and mold that grow like after rain, these are specific people who, on their own initiative, want to create something. Of course, they want profit, no one denies this, but something else arises around this profit. Those who just want profit have not created anything good. In any case, only those who dreamed of creating something that did not have a purely material basis succeeded.

One example about breakthrough technologies. It’s an amazing thing, but in our country he lived and died two years ago, Perepyolkin Kirill Evgenievich, a man who was a unique scientist in terms of creating all kinds of artificial fibers. These fibers began to be created after the 50s, now 4th generation fibers already exist, and 5th generation fibers are already being developed. It so happened that if all this had started 20 years earlier, we would have had a much greater breakthrough. What his laboratory did, those technical developments - they are fundamental. But this is life, some are lucky to be born at one time, others at another.

Evgeny Yasin:

As Eldar Ryazanov said after the 1st Congress of People's Deputies in 1989, freedom was a lifetime too late. For all other questions, please refer to the preface by Mikhail Zhvanetsky, to the first book of the new collected works of Yegor Gaidar. I wanted to say a few words about Gaidar, who created all this that we have today, and he talked about the rest further. I wish you all the best, thank you for your attention. Thanks to the authors and opponents.

Today we will go down below the government and talk about modern business in Russia, let's look at an example of how it works and why we all work so poorly where everything could be just fine.

It all started when I decided for the first time in my life to fight the cold in winter. Before that, I was just skipping from home to the metro, but this time I got tired and I begged from the generous paws of my family for a goat skin, that is, a sheepskin coat.

Everyone wants to be fashionable

But since I never understood the fur business in Moscow, and there was a limited amount of time, the first thing we did was run, much closer, to the snow queen. And the name is well-known, it would seem, they shouldn’t seriously deceive you for things worth one and a half thousand dollars?

The store said that we, of course, can shorten their belt, but only the master is sick, but you can go to any Snow Queen store, and they will definitely shorten it for you. We chose a time on the weekend and specially came to the store, which was conveniently on the road. The rude saleswoman began to hide her eyes and say that we had come in vain and it couldn’t be that there were tailor shops in every store. Frustrated by the aimless 2-hour drive through traffic jams, I came home and discovered that the buckle on my sleeve had broken (the metal had shattered into two pieces), and the other sleeve had completely fallen apart!

The customer is always right

In unpleasant irritation, they began to call the stores, because it is impossible to write to the queen and get a quick answer online. The Snow Queen doesn't know what Facebook is. After half an hour of trying to get through, the next day we went to the store where the studio was located and promised to fix everything for free.

Book of complaints and suggestions

It was just the middle of February. The dressmaker nodded her head and said that we should go get the threads and buckles ourselves, they don’t have that and can’t have it (the tents with buckles nearby were all demolished and we had to spend another three hours to buy buckles). And of course, everything will be sewn up for free, but... in three weeks. Just in time for spring - there are many orders, but only one dressmaker. So I had to pay her extra to pick up the item that day.

When I tried to write a complaint (it also took time to find their email), I received a response with attached copies of a dozen more unfortunate people like me, with a wry apology and not on the topic with which I addressed.

And on the same day I learned from friends that when I bought a leather raincoat and it rained, it immediately became covered with streaks and stains. And when I bought a jacket with a zipper, the zipper broke after a few days.

Humble yourself!

It turns out that in Russia, in order to spend a thousand dollars on clothes, you need to suffer for several more days, hang on the phone, travel all over Moscow, humiliate yourself and pay extra just to wear an expensive thing. So, who is behind this wonderful system of caring for a wealthy client? Vugar Mirzakhanovich Isaev.

Business Werewolf

It’s difficult to find information on him, but let me guess with my eyes closed: no education, parents from the nomenklatura. I got the business for my beautiful eyes. The fur business belongs to a man who has never encountered business in his life and does not distinguish between colonial farming, which is only possible with a club to take away all the benefits from the aborigines, and business.

Let's be politically correct until the end

In a colonial economy, it is entirely up to the buyer what to buy. The colonial administration buys oil and resources from us for pennies, and then sells us second-rate jeans for huge sums of money. So that the residents have nothing at all. The snow queen's business survives only with government support, but with this attitude towards customers they won't last long.

Politically correct, I said!

A clear demonstration of the skill of the business was the decision to sell other clothes in the form of pants and blouses along with outerwear, arguing for their decision that there is no market and fashion for outerwear in Russia. Over the course of the year, stores remained filled with unsold items, and the company suffered serious losses. I wonder if Vugar Mirzakhanovich was guided by the experience of how warm the country is?

It is much easier to understand what is happening in Russia by comparing it with other countries. Then it will become obvious that Russians are Europeans, Asians are Asians, and Chechens, etc. are Africans. And it immediately becomes clear why they are dancing lezginka in the streets. And the attitude towards them should be appropriate, I mentally imagine them dancing around the fire with spears and wearing loincloths. It's the same with Russian business.

You need to be aware that you are dealing with an Indian working in the colonial administration who will buy Manhattan from you for beads. And then you will give him these beads for empty ones tin can. It is probably pointless to demand some kind of human relationship in such a situation.

East is east, west is west, and they cannot come together

05/11/2004, “Have Russians been weaned from earning money?”

A significant part of the Moscow market is occupied by immigrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia

Chechens

According to official data, the number of diaspora is 80,000 people.

According to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate and independent experts, - about 150,000. The latter is more likely to be true, as confirmed by the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics. According to experts, by 2025 the number of the Moscow Chechen diaspora will be 643,000 people.

Business

Multidisciplinary. Concern "Milan".

The most famous brainchild of the concern is the Russian Lotto group of companies.

The Russian Lotto lottery is an all-Russian company operating in 85 regions of the country. In addition to Russian Lotto, the Milan “empire” includes the beauty salon “Milan”, the restaurant “Horse and Dog”, the scientific and production company “Goodwill”, the center of construction technologies of JSC “Lan”, the scientific and technical company “Geniy” -M." Co-owner - Malik Saidulaev.

"Alliance Group"

Anti-crisis management, comprehensive provision of rehabilitation and restructuring of enterprises in Russia and the CIS, provision of financial and legal consulting services. The shareholders of the Alliance Group include state property funds and state property management committees of 15 constituent entities of the Federation, as well as OJSC Kirov Plant and OJSC Izhmash. Another area of ​​activity is oil refining. Owner - Musa Bazhaev.

Hotel business

Plaza Group, Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel - Umar Dzhabrailov.

Gambling business

Organization of casinos, slot machine halls, leasing of premises for offices, office and hotel center "Sovinform" - Ruslan Baysarov (since 2000 - vice-president of the Moscow Fuel Company, which owns about 100 gas stations in the capital).

Banking business

IRS Bank - President Ibrahim Bashaev.

Trade

Group of companies "Idigov Product" - trade in tobacco products. Owner - Musa Idigov.

Food industry

The director of the Russian branch of the Moscow-McDonald's company is Khamzat Khasbulatov.

Crime

Today there are about 20 organized criminal groups operating in Moscow. The scope of activity is standard. Firstly, “protection protection”. About a year ago, information about companies under the criminal control of representatives of the Chechen diaspora was deliberately leaked to the electronic media. The list, which contains almost a hundred Moscow banks, shops, restaurants and other “LLCs” and “OJSCs”, is quite detailed, with addresses of enterprises, names of founders, and so on. There is no point in citing it here.

Small criminal groups, sometimes consisting of people of different nationalities, traditionally trade in drugs, arms trafficking, and the theft and resale of expensive cars.

Azerbaijanis

The number of diaspora is 33,300 people. According to the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate (August 2003) - 1,500,000 people.

Types of business

Trade and purchasing:

Fruit and vegetable products (wholesale and retail) are monopolists.

Small retail trade in Chinese and Turkish consumer goods (wholesale and retail).

Alcohol, cigarettes - 24-hour tents and shops.

"Flower business" - wholesale, retail.

Large wholesale trade in clothing, shoes, etc. - “Snow Queen”, owner - Vugar Isaev.

Shopping centers “Crocus Mall”, “Crocus City”, “Your House” - owner Aras Agalarov.

Trade pavilions of the All-Russian Exhibition Center - First Deputy General Director Magomed Musaev.

Production

Food industry - JSC "Derbenevka" (formerly Moscow Yeast Plant), owner - Agaragim Jafarov. The company is the main supplier of yeast for the entire baking and beer industry in the region.

"Moscow-Efes Brewery" - joint Turkish-Azerbaijani control over business.

"LUKOIL-Market" - agricultural production and trade in sugar, flour, grain.

Oil industry - LUKOIL company. President - Vagit Alekperov.

Crime

Counterfeiting of alcoholic products.

Sale of drugs of plant origin (opiates and hemp), maintenance of drug dens - the “Mingachevir” brigade and the Azerbaijani-Dagestan “Zagatala” brigade. According to intelligence services, they control 35% of the entire drug market in Moscow.

Control over small wholesale markets. Cheryomushkinsky, Usachevsky, Rogozhsky and Velozavodsky, Northern markets - the “Lenkoran” group.

Fraudulent transactions with currency - the “Evlakh” group.

Theft of expensive cars “to order”.

Sex service, illegal export of sturgeon and caviar - small groups.

By the way

According to the Azerbaijani magazine Monitor, the annual income of the Russian Azerbaijani diaspora is $25 billion. Of this, 12% is money earned in industry, 20% from trade, purchasing and intermediary operations, 23% from banking business, and 38% from criminal business.

Armenians

They have lived in Moscow for six centuries. According to the 1989 census, there were 43 thousand Armenians in the capital. Now, according to the Institute of General Genetics. Vavilov, there are 82.2 thousand of them.

Business

Production, service and repair.

According to the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Russia, “large Armenian business in Russia is of a criminal nature...”. At the same time, the Armenian community in Moscow has a very strong position in medium and small businesses, which by definition cannot be criminal. These are restaurants and cafes, shops and stalls, small car services. In 90 cases out of 100, a Muscovite’s shoes are repaired by an Armenian. An Armenian master will change a watch battery or clean a dusty clock mechanism. Armenian entrepreneurs own bakeries, sewing workshops and repair shops household appliances. Another area of ​​business is cargo transportation of fruits and vegetables from the south of Russia and the CIS. In this business, oddly enough, Armenians work together with the final sellers of goods - Azerbaijanis.

Medicine

“Republican Center for Human Reproduction and Family Planning” is world famous. Here, for the first time in Russia, gender reassignment surgery was performed. Every year, 1,600 genital plastic surgeries are performed in the world, of which 350 are de

The Moscow center is barking. Director - Andrey Akopyan.

Food industry

Moscow cognac factory "Ararat" - director Roman Akopyan.

Industry

JSC Moskvich (now under external management). Last CEO- Ruben Asatryan.

Financial business

Investment company Troika-Dialogue, one of the largest players in the country's stock market. By the way, the company owns 40% of the shares of the Arbat-Prestige company, the executive director is Ruben Vardanyan.

Criminal business

Traditionally, the purchase of gold scrap and gold-containing radio components;

Trade in precious and semi-precious stones, illegal financial transactions, counterfeiting of tobacco, wine and vodka products. Now there are six criminal groups in the capital, with about 500 active members. Bandits specialize in car theft, arms trafficking, racketeering, and debt collection. According to rumors, Armenians are not involved in the drug trade as a matter of principle.

Georgians

One of the oldest diasporas in Moscow. According to some sources, its number is 34,800 people, according to others - at least 300 thousand (according to the representatives of the diaspora themselves, half of all Russian Georgians live in the capital). According to the census, there are 634,000 Georgians in Russia.

Food industry

The Wimm-Bill-Dann company (Lianozovsky, Tsaritsynsky, Ramensky dairy plants) provides a third of the Moscow dairy market - Chairman of the Board of Directors David Yakobashvili.

Confectionery holding "Sladko" - president Valeryan Khabulava.

The Khamovniki brewery is owned by Naskid Kharishvili.

Banking business

Russian Credit Bank is one of the co-owners Boris Ivanishvili.

Multidisciplinary business

“Association XXI” unites a dozen enterprises, organizations and firms. The Association is focused on foreign economic activity. President - Anzori Kikalishvili.

Production

The Italian corporation "Merloni" produces and sells annually. There are 1,500,000 Stinol refrigerators on the Russian market. Manufacturer and supplier of household appliances of the Indesit brands. and "Ariston". Managing Director of the Russian representative office Kakha Kobakhidze.

Freight transportation

Air - Amiran Kurtanidze.

"Sovtransavto" (international cargo transportation) - General Director Tengiz Tatishvili.

Oil business

Moscow Oil and Gas Company is the main supplier and processor of petroleum products on the Moscow fuel market. Annual oil production is about 3 million tons. President - Shalva Chigirinsky.

Crime

In recent years, Georgia has been the main supplier of thieves in law. Moscow alone is controlled by 16 Kutaisi thieves, ten Tbilisi thieves, four Megrelian thieves and sixteen Sukhumi thieves. The main activity of Georgian bandits is solving problems within the diaspora, controlling car dealerships, banks, and cafes. His specialty is stealing expensive cars, drug trafficking, and burglary. Georgian “handbag workers” work in the capital on a “shift” basis.

People from Central Asia

Business

The majority of representatives of the Central Asian diaspora (especially those who have arrived in recent years) are employed in the cheapest, dirtiest and lowest paid jobs: janitors (especially the South-Western district of Moscow), builders of the lowest qualifications. Small shuttle business, supplies of cheap Chinese consumer goods. They run small “fast food” outlets where they serve dishes with a “national flavor”. At the same time, representatives of the Kazakh diaspora are engaged in “ high technology» - programming, trading and assembling computers. In the nearest suburbs of Moscow there are several “Kazakh” and “Uzbek” printing houses that do not complain about the lack of customers. Prices are significantly lower than the capital average, and the print quality is excellent.

Building bussiness

Financial and construction corporation "Conti" is a leader in the capital's housing market. The president of the corporation is Timur Timerbulatov.

Oil and gas industry

JSC Gazprominvestholding, General Director - Alisher Usmanov.

Crime

Begging and heroin trafficking. According to the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate, 90% of heroin is brought to the capital by Tajik drug couriers. Another area of ​​activity is the production and sale of counterfeit products (clothing, perfumes, auto parts, alcohol, etc.). Hand selling expired products. Also, representatives of Central Asian diasporas are part of criminal groups with a mixed ethnic composition.

If on a pack of cigarettes " Belomor" or " Prima”, which you smoke, it says “Idigov product”, then your ruble will fill the pockets of the Chechen owner of this company Musa IDIGOVA(by the way, a great friend of Alexander Rutsky).

If you buy a bottle of beer " Baltika", then the money you paid goes to the Ossetian Teimuraza BOLLOEVA, head of the brewing company " Baltika", which includes factories in St. Petersburg, Tula, Rostov-on-Don and Samara.

If you like St. Petersburg beer plant named after Stepan Razin, then an important Georgian is managing your money Gia GWICHIA, whose family owns this plant.

If you bought a loaf of bread or a small bun in Moscow, then the pennies you and millions of Muscovites paid will merge into streams that will flow from bakeries to the monopoly yeast producer in the capital, the Moscow Yeast Plant (now JSC " Derbenevka"), or rather its owner, who is an Azerbaijani Agaragim DZHAFAROV. By the way, it was he who organized the sale to the Turks of a huge brewery built in Moscow with budget money, which now produces beer “ Efes Pilsner" And " Old Miller».

If you go to McDonald's for a snack, then know that the director of the Russian branch of this American company is a Chechen Khamzat KHASBULATOV.

If you buy lottery tickets " Russian lotto", then maybe you will get something... from the income of the Chechen owner of this business Malika SAIDULLAEVA. You may have heard this name; he was one of the contenders for the leadership of Chechnya.

If you go to Moscow to look at a chic underground shopping complex on Manezhnaya Square, then know that it is controlled by a famous Chechen Umar JABRAILOV, although the complex was not built with his money at all. By the way, this Umar, as well as another Chechen Ruslan BAISAROV, known as the father of Kristina Orbakaite’s last child, are the “curators” of the largest hotels and office complexes in Moscow: “Rossiya”, “ Radisson-Slavyanskaya», « Center international trade » (« Sovintsentr»), « Smolensky passage».

If you shopped in Moscow on a shabby Cherkizovsky clothing market or visited a chic restaurant " Prague", then in both cases you enriched their single owner - a Caucasian highlander Telmana ISMAILOV(also known as the sponsor of singer Abraham Russo).

If you go to refuel your car, then look at the name of the gas station. It is written " Lukoil» this is an Azerbaijani oil concern Vagita ALEKPEROVA. It is written " MTK" - this is business Shalva CHIGIRINSKY, President of the Moscow oil company(which belongs to " MTK"). Moreover, CHIGIRINSKY’s business partners are Vyacheslav BASAYEV(a relative of the same one) and the above-mentioned Ruslan BAISAROV.

If you decide to deposit your money in Bank "BIN", then know that it belongs to the Ingush to the GUTSERIEV clan. The bank grew up servicing the tax-free zone in Ingushetia. And when the head of the clan, Mikhail GUTSERIEV (at one time he was vice-speaker of the State Duma from the LDPR), was appointed in January 2000 to lead “ Slavneft", then the bank became with great benefit for itself " service» financial flows of this oil company (over 3/4 of the shares of which are owned by the state of Russia and Belarus). Gutseriev was dismissed in the spring of 2002 and the assets of BIN Bank immediately decreased by a quarter.

If you work for a company that has accounts in Moscow Industrial Bank(and there are many of them in Moscow, Vladimir region, and in other regions), then ask your director if this Chechen-led Abubakar ARSAMAKOV bank. And why does he regularly help a very wealthy Chechen-Moscow Style jar?

If you bought a carton of milk " House in the village", kefir " Bio-Max", juice " J 7"or a jar" Miracle yogurt", look at the packaging - and you will see the same company logo the face of an incomprehensible animal. This is the company sign Wimm-Bill-Dann", which produces all these products. And the chairman of the board of directors of the company and one of its main owners is a Georgian David YAKOBASHVILI.

If you have decided to buy a fur coat or sheepskin coat in a widely advertised shopping center " The Snow Queen", then keep in mind that this business is run by an Azerbaijani Vugar ISAEV.

If you entered the territory in Moscow All-Russian Exhibition Center(better known by its old name VDNKh) and you see shopping arcades in the exhibition pavilions, and in the alleys there are many stalls, then know that all this commerce is supervised by a Caucasian man, the first deputy general director of the All-Russian Exhibition Center Magomed MUSAYEV. By the way, the son-in-law of a famous politician Ramazan ABDULATIPOVA.

Vugar Isaev

President of the Snow Queen company

President of the Snow Queen company Vugar Isaev talks about new opportunities and trends that are already determining the future of the Russian fur market.

In June of this year, speaking at Russian Retail Week, you expressed a wonderful thought: “We are all globally threatened by only one thing in business - it’s called complacency. When a company begins to perceive itself as cool, like we can do everything, we know everything, at that moment a threat arises. Everything else is opportunity.” What opportunities has the new economic reality opened for the Snow Queen?

Vugar Isaev: Firstly, this is a qualitative change in the interaction of the active part of fashion retail with representatives of the state. During 2013-14, it was possible to develop a consistent understanding of the importance of equal conditions of competition for the further effective development of fashion retail in Russia. The consequence of this was a pilot project to introduce labeling of fur products, launched in August 2016. Of course, it is too early to talk about a qualitative change in the competitive environment in one year, but the pilot allowed representatives of the Federal Tax Service, Federal Customs Service and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to intensify interaction with industry associations. A lot of work is going on to improve the legislative field, which also contributes to the development of self-regulation processes in the market. We look forward to his continued successful development in the fur market and expansion to other product categories. This work is long, significant results can be discussed in the next two to three years.

Secondly, the technological development of communication with the client based on omnichannel approaches makes it possible to satisfy the desires of different consumers in a more personalized way. The development of e-commerce leads to mutual penetration and integration of processes in online and offline retail. Another important trend is further development and enrichment information bases retail operators, implementation of new algorithms for working with big data.

And the third is the transfer of contractual relationships with landlords to the ruble field. If before the crisis, lease agreements in 50% of cases were concluded in foreign currency, now almost all of them have been converted to rubles.

There is a saying: in Russia, business can be planned from crisis to crisis. For 20 years, “The Snow Queen” has gone through more than one crisis period. What lessons has the company learned from market turmoil?

Vugar Isaev: The 1998 crisis, let’s say, scared, but certainly didn’t put any of the emerging network retail operators in hopeless situation. There was a rapid economic recovery. It’s the same with the V-shaped crisis of 2008: the restoration of retail demand, which began at the end of 2009, made it possible for the majority of companies to maintain and strengthen their market positions. A completely new reality is something that actually began in the summer of 2014, and was established globally by mid-2015. The basic challenge that all companies responded to was a sharp change in the ruble exchange rate. Plus high import dependence in fashion retail. This has forced all sane companies to optimize their technological and logistics processes along the entire supply chain right down to raw materials, in order to achieve a lower cost of goods without deteriorating them quality characteristics. And one more marketing lesson - the approach to pricing. Previously, buyers were ready to give a premium of up to 15-20% to the average market price for the strength of the brand. Since 2015, due to changes in both consumer awareness and economic status, people want to see a fair market price. Consumers do not want to overpay just for a brand. They want quality - for them it should be the default. In general, it has become both easier and more difficult for buyers to understand their desires and relate them to their capabilities. As a result, the market becomes more dynamic. Product production technologies are being improved. Business processes and projects in companies are shifting towards a greater focus on meeting the desires and needs of customers.

Fashion retailers note a continuing decline in consumer activity, caused this year not only by a decrease in household incomes, but also by a climate “failure.”

Vugar Isaev: Yes, they talk a lot about this, and the average statistical data provided by Rosstat show that real incomes of the population have fallen. This, of course, led to a decrease in purchasing activity. But in the fashion retail market - no matter whether we are talking about clothes or shoes - there is no such concentration of large players as, for example, in the electronics market. And since no participant’s market share is close to saturation, companies that know how to quickly restructure their work with clients both in the information and product fields have the opportunity to increase their turnover like for like even in a stagnating market.

Many manufacturers and sellers of fur products complain about a serious reduction in customers in the mid-price segment. How have the categories and requests of The Snow Queen clients changed?

Vugar Isaev: In 2015, we really saw some shift in consumer demand from the mid-price segment towards the low-price segment. But 2016 showed that with proper work with goods in the mid-price segment - when this product is located in those cities and in those shopping centers where there are enough customers in this price segment - sales can be restored and even increased.

How did changing consumer demands affect the selection of brands in the Snow Queen portfolio? What criteria were the key for selection?

Vugar Isaev: The key criterion in this case was flexibility. There are brands that are able to meaningfully build pricing policy, acceptable for the Russian market, taking into account the fallen purchasing power, but there are those who are trying to exist in a comfortable mode, imposing their own rules. If a brand has a flexible policy, then it is always possible to reach agreements. If there is no flexibility in terms of product range and prices in Russia, then this slows down the work.

How has the share of Russian suppliers of The Snow Queen changed over the past three years?

Vugar Isaev: Work to develop interaction with Russian factories and transfer production processes to the territory of our country are typical for many major players in the fashion retail market. “Snow Queen”, being a chain of multi-brand fashion stores with unique competence in fur, sells both products of global brands (Tom Tailor, S’Oliver, Desigual, etc.) and under its own brands. We have six main private labels, where the development of collections is carried out by our resources. The categories of clothing that we produce include both products made from natural fur and leather, as well as textile products - outerwear and casual clothing. If we talk about Russian production, for the last three to four years we have not only been placing orders for tailoring in our country, but we are also constantly working to find new Russian partners capable of producing clothes in the categories we need, in the right volume and at the right price .

In some product categories, Russian manufacturers are now able to successfully compete with the Asia-Pacific region. Moreover, there are, for example, products that are unprofitable to order from China - these are the so-called costume group products, coats and large-sized clothing. This share could be significantly higher if there were large technology companies in Russia that produce modern materials and fabrics from high-tech chemical fibers. Today, the leaders in this direction are South Korea, China, and Türkiye.

Until companies appear in our country that produce modern fabrics from high-tech fibers with competitive costs, Russian companies we will have to continue to sew from imported materials. In the meantime, the high share of the cost of fabric (up to 50%) in the cost of production does not allow Russian manufacturers working on imported raw materials to compete with companies from Turkey and Asia-Pacific countries. Currently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is undertaking active actions to bring Russian textile production to a new level, which gives reason to look at the future of this industry with cautious optimism.

If we talk about the production of fur products, then the situation here is more complicated. According to official data, the share of clothing made from natural fur produced in Russia does not exceed 5% of total consumption. Before the introduction of the mandatory labeling project for products made from natural fur in 2016, more than 80% of them were imported into the Russian Federation and sold on the domestic market illegally without payment or with partial payment of both customs duties and internal taxes. At the same time, the widespread occurrence of shadow processes, characteristic of Russian light industry, is especially pronounced in the production and sale of products made from natural fur. The combination of these factors greatly complicated the construction of civilized business processes in this area. However, a set of measures is currently being implemented at the state level to radically change the situation. This is the introduction of online cash registers, further development of the labeling project, the introduction of the Roskachestvo institute, etc.

More and more companies today are outsourcing production to Russia. How promising is this direction for fur brands? What are the advantages and disadvantages of fur production in Russia compared to European and Southeast Asian countries?

Vugar Isaev: Today, building interaction with Russian productions is one of the most important areas of development not only from the point of view of supporting the import substitution project, but also because it allows retail chains do not depend on the volatility of the ruble exchange rate. The main difficulty is that finding production that works with the Russian raw material base is still quite difficult if we are talking about the production of fashionable casual and outerwear. There has been an interesting development in the production of fur coats from mouton, sheepskin and nutria. There is a raw material base and historically established industries that are being approached modern technologies, allowing you to create a sought-after product with an acceptable price retail market cost. There are prospects in the production of wool and natural fabrics. There is not yet a sufficient quantity of high-quality mink fur on the Russian market, and for the last three years we have been developing partner production outsourcing in those companies that are able to produce products from imported raw materials according to our standards. There is no qualitative change there yet.

Our advantage is that, working with local or European furs, we can significantly reduce logistics costs - than if this fur was first sent from Europe to China, and then back to Russia. But we must honestly admit to ourselves that for now the Russian manufacturing companies do not achieve the labor productivity that large technology companies in Southeast Asia provide. Therefore, the cost of products from suppliers from Southeast Asia to this moment still turns out comparable, if not lower.

What criteria must local manufacturers meet in order for their product to be sold in your network?

Vugar Isaev: The most basic criterion is the ability to satisfy our requirements. Since our technology is built on complete control of the supply chain, from raw materials and production to the buyer, these are the companies that are able to integrate into the standards and requirements of the Snow Queen. That is, they are able, within their categories, to provide goods of guaranteed and stable quality in the volume we need and at an attractive price for the buyer.

Many Russian networks Today they are reducing the number of stores, but increasing the average area point of sale. What strategy does The Snow Queen follow? Does the company plan to develop new territories and formats?

Vugar Isaev: Those networks that developed in the 150-250 sq. m, they understand that their strategy is to increase the area of ​​the retail outlet to 500 - 700 sq. m. m. Since for "The Snow Queen" standard format There has always been a format of 800-1000 sq. m, for us such a task is not worth it. For our part, we are not reducing the number of stores, but we are making separate relocations, since we carefully analyze the traffic of shopping centers and still open new points of sale every year. Yes, we continue to explore new territories and formats. For us, the most interesting thing is that over the past three years, in some shopping centers with high traffic, we have developed the format of an outerwear store with an area smaller than our standard - about 500 sq. m. m.

What current trends, in your opinion, will determine the fashion market in Russia in the coming years? How will it be able to reach pre-crisis levels?

Vugar Isaev: Reaching the pre-crisis level is possible in a situation of significant changes in the company precisely in terms of technological capabilities. It is necessary to reduce the cost of manufactured goods while fully maintaining its quality characteristics. This trend is observed in fashion retail today, but only large companies can do it. Small players should choose niche formats that allow them to build a little deeper personal interaction between the seller and the buyer. Now the model, when a small company tries to “sit on the tail” of a large one, simply by opening a store nearby and purchasing approximately the same goods, has no chance of success. In any case, on the fur market, since the labeling project forces them, at the very least, to pay some taxes, and as a result, they cannot put pressure on the price. If we talk about the variety of collections, additional features and services (such as, for example, installment plan 0-0-36) and a significantly larger number of contacts with different people through various communication channels - an advantage large company on the face. Therefore, small companies always need a meaningful niche strategy. It can allow quite successful small chains of boutique format stores, because they take some part for themselves general audience thanks to its unique features, special services etc.

Interviewed Maxim Medvedev

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