‘The first Auchan supermarket in Yekaterinburg will be located on the grounds of IKEA in Moskovskiy Rd. The opening will take place anywhere between October and December 2006, depending on the speed of construction,’ Sales Headquarters Director of Auchan chain stores Jeanne Pierre said. ‘We think we’ll set up one store for now and wait for the customer response. The company’s future strategy will be based on the turnover and profits of this particular store. We generally open 1 to 4 stores in Russia annually, although the particular projects depend on the availability of sites. Thus, only one

The Tax Violation Department of Sverdlovsk Region Municipal Internal Affairs Administration has come across a number of legal abuses in the course of a recent investigation carried out at Irbitskiy Mototsikletniy Zavod Ltd., the motorcycle producer of Irbit, Sverdlovsk Region. ‘The results of the investigation gave us some grounds for instituting legal proceedings against the company; it was thus charged with tax evasion (Clause 199 of Russian Federation Criminal Code, Part II) by the Investigative Department of Internal Affairs Administration of Irbit. Some evidence of guilt has already been

The assembling of the new cold saw was completed at the Will Flange and Tread Department of Metallurgical Works of Nizhniy Tagil. The saw is meant for cutting railway wheel billets. This is the seventh plant of this sort assembled at this department; the earlier saws were introduced in the decade of 1995-2005 to replace the outdated ingot-splitting machines. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, the assembling contract had been signed with MFL Company of Austria. The new saw can perform the cutting tasks in a more precise and productive way. Its produce is going to meet

‘Sbarro, the Italian fast food chain, is going to invest close to $600,000 in the local market in 2006, given that 2 restaurants are opened. The budget for 2007 hasn’t been finalized yet, but it’s likely to look like at least another $600,000 to 1 million,’ reports Director of Brothers and Co. Merab Elashvili. ‘Each project is expected to pay off within 2 years. The company’s strategy is very competitive and, despite the regional competition, the researches we have done and the analytical surveys carried out by our development and marketing specialists indicate that we would be welcome there.

Ural car factory of Miass, Chelyabinsk Region, is going to hold a meeting with the company dealers in order to assess their marketing success in 2005 and discuss the future strategy. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, the other points on the agenda include the evaluation of Sales Department work in terms of selling Ural cars and their spare parts and setting the new goals. One more item concerns the pricing policy, and then there will be a discussion on dealer network development, service station requirements and the potential of the Russian truck market. The

Due to extremely cold weather in January 2006, Chelyabinskaya Ugolnaya Kompaniya JSC, Coal Company of Chelyabinsk, had to cut back on its coal production and thus fell behind. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, the cold temperature also caused an inversion of Korkinskiy open-pit mine, the company’s flagship. This lead to a 15% backlog of work (compared to the monthly production plan). The total output of coal comprised 193,000 tons in January 2006, of which 129,000 tons (67%) were extracted from the mines. Korkinskiy mine and Section # 2 excelled the plan by 2% and 3%,

Ufaleynickel JSC keeps on upgrading its obsolete equipment, namely, the new Unico will replace the old KFK-2 photocolorimeters at the Analytical Department of the plant’s laboratory. As the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative, Unico is going to be used for ore, sewage and dross analysis aimed at finding the possible bits of nickel, iron and cobalt.

Metallurgical works of Magnitogorsk produced 120,900 tons of ore, 962,500 tons of agglomerate, 486,000 tons of coke, 838,100 tons of cast iron, 984,000 tons of steel and 903,700 tons of finished steel. 887,900 tons of metal production were produced. The company exceeded last year’s output figures by 12.2%. The export share fell by 3.6% (53.3% opposed t o last year’s 56.9%), the company’s spokesperson reports.

Chelyabinskiy Kompressorniy Zavod CJSC, compressor plant of Chelyabinsk, is going to hold a dealer meeting on February 17, 2006. According to the representatives of the Marketing Department, the meeting will begin with a presentation of the new equipment, namely, DEN-type compressor equipment with the electrical engine driving gear and KV diesel compressor plants. The other point on the agenda include the reports of the Germany’s ROTORCOMP representatives (the company deals in selling the plant’s spiral blocks) and reports by the representatives of DONALDSON Company ans SMS of Belgium; both