Moscow, 14 May 2019 – X5 Retail Group N.V. ("X5" or the "Company"), a leading Russian food retailer (LSE and MOEX ticker: "FIVE"), announces the opening of Perekrestok’s "smart kitchen", Russia’s largest and the most advanced ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook production facility. Food from the Perekrestok smart kitchen will enable the supermarket format to expand its the ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook assortment by 2.5 times while also offering customers even higher quality products.
The 26,000 sq m facility located in the Moscow region already produces 200+ ready-made products under the Perekrestok Chef brand. The smart kitchen is currently operated by about 700 employees. Upon reaching the full capacity of 120 t of ready-made products per day, a total of 2,000 employees will produce an assortment of 600+ items.
The facility boasts a unique routing system that is optimised for each type of meal and combines six different production lines. This makes the facility more efficient and results in higher output. On top of that, the smart kitchen features state-of-the-art equipment from Russia, Germany, Italy, the US, UK, and Switzerland, with some of the machinery specifically tailored for the project.
Special attention is paid to quality control. All ingredients are subject to full range of quality and safety tests prior to being used in the kitchen.
The new facility manufactures ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat products: hot and cold starters, salads, main courses, confectionery, pastry, drinks, Korean dishes, sushi, etc. At present, it supplies over 400 Perekrestok stores in Moscow and in the Moscow region. At a later stage, the smart kitchen will also provide goods to supermarkets in St Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, along with Pyaterochka and Karusel stores in Moscow and the Moscow region.
The Perekrestok smart kitchen is part of X5’s response to customers’ growing demand for ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat products, making it possible to offer an expanded assortment in stores. Today, Perekrestok sells approximately 250 ready-made food items.