Russia's VimpelCom shifting to active development, preparing updated strategy - CEO
MOSCOW. Dec 19 (Interfax) - PJSC VimpelCom is shifting to a phase of active development and exploration of new business niches, and aims to prepare an updated strategy by Q1 2025, VimpelCom CEO Sergei Anokhin told reporters.
"We are actively updating our strategy at the moment. We aim to complete this work by the end of Q1," Anokhin said.
The strategy will outline specific priorities and directions - the business niches the company has chosen to develop, he said. "This will be an ongoing process involving testing and exploration. Some things are already clear to us and we are taking action on them; some things we are discarding. Going forward, there will be a constant conveyor of analysis, interaction and work with clients - understanding what they need and where it is relevant to them - to find our new niches," he said.
The company plans to actively expand both its core business and adjacent areas, including the digitalization sector. "Of course, this has become more challenging than it was 5-10 years ago when there were four players in the market. Now there are several dozen. This creates a new challenge, but nonetheless, the company and management still have ambitions to pivot towards active growth and development," he said.
The company sees potential for growth, particularly in developing digital products for the B2B market, he said. "We have a strong foundation in advertising, cloud services, a little in cybersecurity, and comprehensive solutions. While we may not be as visible as other players, our product potential both in competencies and expertise is quite strong, and we want to accelerate their development," he said.
"We want to find niches where we can be relevant to clients and support them, being present in their life and business situations. Through this perspective, we aim to identify where we can be, where we can assist clients, and provide them with value," he said.
The changes will affect all areas of VimpelCom's business, including marketing, sales channels, product development, internal operations and other areas, he said.
RETAIL
The company plans to resume opening new sales points to align its retail network size with that of competitors, Deputy CEO and Head of VimpelCom's Retail Business and Regional Development Denis Lysov said.
"We believed the market would evolve in the direction we had previously envisioned for store network development, but that hasn't happened yet - the market is still operating within an inefficient economic model. Therefore, our primary task for the near future is to align with the market a little to ensure our client base continues to grow," Lysov said.
"We will balance the number of service offices. We will open new points where we see growth zones or areas with low presence and inconvenient client routes," he said. VimpelCom currently operates more than 2,000 sales and service offices, 35% of which are franchises, Lysov said.
VimpelCom plans to experiment with finding new sales channels, he said.
"Customer pathways are changing rapidly. This year, the number of eSIM activations has grown 130%. Marketplaces have become the new social networks. In general, SIM cards today can be viewed as an FMCG product: you take one, register yourself and leave. All this opens up new and interesting opportunities for us, and there will be many experiments with sales channels in the near future," he said.
Company representatives have often talked in the past about the redundancy of sales points for telecom operators and the need to optimize operator retail. In 2019, VimpelCom launched a program to improve retail efficiency and began closing unprofitable points. By 2020, the company said that it was actively shifting sales online and seeking an optimal balance between its own and franchised stores. At that time, it had around 3,400 sales points nationwide, 1,980 of which were franchises. By the end of 2023, VimpelCom's retail network included 1,536 company-owned sales offices and a total network of 2,419 including franchises.
