Utkonos will create a network of vending machines

The Utkonos online hypermarket plans to sell ready meals through micromarkets (a type of vending machine), Mikhail Chasovnikov, the company's development DIRECTOR, told Vedomosti.

According to him, at the first stage, Utkonos will install eight such machines in business centers and residential complexes in Moscow. If the experiment is successful, Utkonos is ready to expand the network to 100 or more outlets, Chasovnikov said.

Utkonos is owned by New Impulse-50, which is owned by Alexei Mordashov's Severgroup. According to Data Insight for 2020, Utkonos ranks eighth among online stores with a share of 5.8%. The company's sales at the end of last year amounted to 16.4 billion rubles, a net loss of 3.9 billion rubles.

Until 2013, Utkonos also developed offline stores, but abandoned them due to a change in the business model. In 2020, the online retailer combined purchases of goods with Lenta (also owned by Mordashov), as a result, the company was able to achieve a reduction in the price of products from suppliers and it had more opportunities to develop various projects, the CEO of Infoline- Analysts" Mikhail Burmistrov.