The axon closes. Have you booked the owner of the Akson shopping center? Owners abandon the bank
Partnership between DIY chains and furniture companies is a new anti-crisis trend. Just a couple of years ago, commercial and ideological contacts between these markets were rare and ineffective, primarily due to different speeds and development strategies. Russian furniture makers, for the most part, were (and continue to be) far behind high-tech DIY.
The changes began after DIY market leaders recognized furniture as an important product group. One of the most striking examples of successful intersectoral cooperation is the Leroy Merlin kitchen project. Furniture as a product category also appeared in the assortment of OBI, Castorama and a number of regional DIY companies. In addition to kitchen furniture, construction retail is interested in bathroom furniture, wardrobes, dressing rooms and garden furniture. Less commonly, tables, chairs, hallways and upholstered furniture are included in the DIY range.
The retail real estate market also responded to the emergence of “furniture demand” in DIY stores: the proximity of construction and furniture hypermarkets has already become a widespread phenomenon. Connectors are trying to increase targeted traffic by combining two different consumer groups.
Taking all these trends into account, the Axon DIY network is now building closer cooperation with furniture makers. Interestingly, the company is trying to move away from classic models cooperation (direct purchases of goods or leasing of own space), considering them ineffective. Since the beginning of 2017, Axon has been implementing its own innovative partnership format, which has no analogues in Russia.
Axon is one of the leading DIY operators in the Central and Northwestern regions. The company owns 9 hypermarkets with a capacity of twenty thousand, located in Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Ivanovo, Vologda, Cherepovets, Rybinsk, Kirov, and Dzerzhinsk. In addition, large Akson distribution centers operate in Moscow and Yaroslavl. The company is one of the ten largest Russian DIY operators. Last year showed 14 percent growth.
Andrey Ozerov
owner of the company "Axon"
“We must admit, we have grown not in volume, but in money,” says the owner of Akson. Andrey Ozerov. — We carried out competent optimization, reduced the retail space, and removed an ineffective assortment. But the market is tight now. It is necessary to develop new projects that will help Axon differentiate itself from the Big Three, expand its product lines and consumer audience. Furniture is a solution that lies on the surface.”
Let us note that the furniture theme is far from new for Axon. The network actively collaborated with Russian furniture makers long before the “heavyweights” of the DIY market became interested in them. From 2004 to 2016, an autonomous furniture department operated within the Akson structure. The word "autonomous" is key here. The direction developed outside the main retail format; furniture exhibitions were usually opened on the second floors of shopping centers and operated like regular stores - with their own staff and cash register. Among Axon's suppliers at that time were 8 March, MTs-5, Shatura, Angstrem and a number of other factories.
Andrey Ozerov, however, was not satisfied with the profitability of traditional furniture retail. He began to think about new formats of interaction with the adjacent market. The second floors in Aksona hypermarkets were leased to furniture companies developing their own trade. Axon himself decided to try to make the furniture he was interested in on his own.
“By that time, we were already actively selling furniture within the hypermarket itself,” shares Andrey Ozerov, “but this furniture was purely for the DIY format. Minimum variety, maximum functionality. We exhibited win-win products in the sales areas - small “cases”, inexpensive sofas of the same type, ready-made modular kitchens, bathroom furniture. These categories are always in demand by our customers. We produced these products ourselves because we did not find suppliers who could meet the network’s needs in terms of volume and timing.”
Today the factory, owned by Axon, produces up to 10 thousand product units. Here they make kitchens (sold in Akson under the Itana brand), bathroom furniture, upholstered furniture, dining sets and even their own collection of home textiles.
“The interior and furniture assortment today provides us with up to 20 percent of our turnover,” explains Mr. Ozerov. — And not all product groups are represented by their own brands. For certain categories - for example, tables and chairs - we cooperate with external suppliers.
However, I believe that Axon does not cover even half of the furniture needs of its visitors. Having purchased construction and finishing materials, our clients go to other stores to look for furniture that is more interesting and original than what we offer. But they could easily shop for furniture at Akson. However, this requires significantly diversifying the offer. That is why we are now actively working to expand our furniture range. But we want to do this not through direct purchases, but through a mutually beneficial partnership scheme.”
The partnership project, as Andrey Ozerov sees it, is a hybrid of rental-commission-service relationships that minimizes risks for all participants in the process. This format is a definite challenge to existing formats. This is where courage and novelty lie.
Axon is ready to provide furniture companies with retail space in the central part of the construction hypermarket - right on the flow. At the same time, the products of partner furniture makers are exhibited taking into account category zoning - kitchens, upholstered furniture, cabinet programs. Axon is not against branding such displays, but plans to design the contour elements of the brand sections independently so as not to disrupt the visual structure of the hypermarket.
“We are not talking about any strict exhibition regulations, but the general visual consensus and exhibition logic must be taken into account,” says Andrei Ozerov. “In the end, we work for the convenience of customers. At first, furniture makers can enter our centers as ordinary tenants, but in the future we plan to complicate the relationship - switch to commission payment.
You need to understand that together with the top trading platform The furniture maker gets access to our key services - cash service, online store, customer logistics, as well as furniture assembly services. The costs of organizing these areas, excluding the online store, take up to 20-40 percent in the structure of any retail network. As part of a partnership with Akson, the furniture company can avoid them.
As for the online store, this is a special conversation. Entry into the online sales market is becoming more expensive every year, and furniture makers have less and less chance of being integrated into successful Internet projects. We offer to join ours on virtually velvet terms.”
According to Andrey Ozerov, the stage of integration of the new range into the Akson product matrix will take about a year. This is exactly how much time it will take for furniture companies to provide an electronic catalog of their products for the online store, as well as to test the sales system in the hypermarket itself.
“In the future, we will take commissions for our services - providing a platform, omnichannel services and logistics,” explains the owner of Akson. — Why do I consider this cooperation scheme more effective than traditional trade or regular rent? It's all about the DIY and furniture sales methodology. I believe that the furniture company itself should manage sales at the hypermarket site. Our sellers can't handle this. The sales system in a DIY hypermarket relies not on salespeople, but on merchandising. Therefore, all Axon line personnel are trained to work not so much with customers, but with products. And in the furniture trade, a lot depends on the seller, his knowledge, qualifications and methods of persuasion. We provide furniture makers with the opportunity to work on an efficient platform without changing sales strategies.”
Axon began implementing a partnership project with furniture makers exactly six months ago. The Akson hypermarket in Ivanovo is currently serving as an experimental site. Today, the central furniture area has already been decorated here. The site occupies over a thousand square meters. Most of the assortment is currently represented by Akson’s own products. But in parallel, negotiations are underway with external suppliers. For example, an agreement has already been concluded with the Glazov company. The factory exhibited its living rooms and children's rooms here, and also provided salespeople.
Negotiations are at the final stage with the Katyusha concern, which is preparing to enter the project with its kitchen brand of the same name.
“In my opinion, the benefits that a furniture company receives when joining our affiliate program are obvious,” says Andrey Ozerov. — Firstly, traffic. It is 3-4 times higher than the traffic of any furniture center.
Secondly, our online store. Today, about 25 percent of all furniture sales are sold through it.
Thirdly, omnichannel services. In addition to the online store, sales can also be made through omni-zone terminals located in all construction hypermarkets of the Axon network. That is, the furniture supplier does not have to rent retail space throughout the entire network at once. It is enough to open two or three expositions in key centers and gain access to the audience of all hypermarkets. In addition, the omnichannel approach allows us to present the full range of the factory.
Fourthly, our logistics capabilities. Any furniture maker can count on prompt delivery of goods to the consumer, provided that he delivers it on time to one of our distribution centers in Moscow or Yaroslavl.
Thus, Axon is ready not only to provide the furniture company with an effective sales platform, but also to connect it to advanced trading services that will not soon take root in traditional furniture retail. The proposal, in our opinion, is interesting and deserves a more detailed discussion with furniture companies. “Akson is open to discuss a new project, including on the pages of the Furniture Business magazine,” concludes Mr. Ozerov.
Asya Zelinskaya
Kostroma Aksonbank (310th place in terms of assets according to RIA Rating) of ex-State Duma deputy from A Just Russia Andrei Ozerov, after last week’s searches, faced serious difficulties. The Central Bank deprived the credit institution of the opportunity to carry out settlements through its payment system, and the bank itself suspended the issuance of deposits and any other transactions. Both of these facts are usually a harbinger of imminent license revocation, experts say. The loss of bank liquidity could have occurred due to the influx of depositors after the searches.
The Bank of Russia disconnected Aksonbank from its system of banking electronic urgent payments (BESP) on Friday morning, as follows from the closed mailing of the Central Bank to system participants, available to Izvestia. Sometimes disconnection from this system is due to legal reasons (for example, reorganization), in rare cases it is caused by technical problems. However, most often, as practice shows, the regulator soon revokes the license of banks disconnected from BESP.
In addition, as Izvestia found out, last week Aksonbank stopped issuing deposits to clients. The credit institution explains the refusal to return funds by “updating software».
Unfortunately, this is impossible to do now: technical work is underway to update the software,” the bank’s call center operator answered Izvestia on Friday when asked whether it would be possible to withdraw the deposit in the near future. On Sunday another employee financial institution said that “so far any actions with in cash are impossible."
However, already on Monday, the Axonbank call center told Izvestia that “investigative measures are currently underway against one of the bank’s clients, all transactions are blocked.”
Disconnection from BESP and the fact of non-repayment of deposits on time are serious signs. Often after this, banks - especially for small ones credit institutions“Licensing sanctions were applied,” Pavel Samiev, managing director of the National Rating Agency, noted in a conversation with Izvestia.
According to the Bank of Russia, Axonbank is 100% owned by the NFK company (former name - Axon Holding), and its ultimate owner is ex-deputy of the State Duma of the sixth convocation from the A Just Russia party, member of the State Duma Committee on Housing Policy and Housing and Communal Services Andrey Ozerov .
At the end of last week, the Investigative Committee seized servers and desktop computers from the central office of Aksonbank as part of an investigation into criminal cases related to tax evasion by the companies Akson Yar and Avers. Both organizations were part of Axon Holding, and the first, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, was owned directly by Andrei Ozerov in 2009.
The investigation believes that in 2010–2012, the management of these companies “deliberately, by including deliberately false information in tax returns” evaded paying taxes: the Avers company underpaid 54 million rubles, the Akson Yar company - 38 million rubles.
Now Axonbank ranks 310th in terms of assets. Credit organisation at the end of 2016, it received a net profit of 48.7 million rubles (at the end of 2015 - a loss of 67.4 million rubles). The lion's share of income (73.3%) in the first quarter was interest. Almost all loans issued to legal entities fall under “other activities” and “completion of settlements.”
The bank is heavily dependent on funds from individuals, which account for 66% of the size of liabilities: the population stores 2.9 billion rubles in it. It is worth noting that Axonbank is part of the deposit insurance system, and in the event of revocation of the license, depositors' losses in the amount of up to 1.4 million rubles will be compensated.
As of the last two reporting dates (May 1 and June 1), Aksonbank's N3 standard (current liquidity standard, which limits the risk of loss of liquidity over the next month - Izvestia) withstood a monthly outflow of only 9.5% of attracted funds. Information about searches in the bank could provoke early outflows of client balances, for which the bank, according to official reports, was not prepared. It is possible that structures affiliated with the bank were among the first to take the balances, which could deplete the liquidity reserve for payments to market clients,” Ivan Uklein, a leading analyst at the Expert RA rating agency, told Izvestia.
Chairman of the board of the bank Denis Gomzelev, deputy chairman of the board Ivan Razumnyak and chief accountant Maria Petrova did not answer Izvestia’s written questions.
The Bank of Russia does not comment on the activities of existing banks.
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As some of my comrades write in my comments, they say, why did you attack Ozerov - a good, honest person! This, they say, is all because of the elections.
Well, let’s figure out “who is xy” - so let’s go straight through the official biography of the only saint in our modern politics.
“Andrei Ozerov was born in 1966 into a family that did not stand out in any way from the many families of the Soviet Union. Andrei and his brother were raised by their mother. They lived in an old house without amenities, and the family budget rarely exceeded 80 rubles a month. Therefore, Andrei has known the problems of the common man since childhood.”
Yeah, and it’s okay that for 20 years now his income has been in the millions of dollars! In the 90s, when the whole country was in decline, and the region even more so, people went bankrupt, businesses collapsed, and old people died from the cold in winter, Comrade Ozerov basked in resorts and lined his pockets - of course, the problems of the common man were very close to him..
Separately, I would like to note that the man from the Ozerov people did not indicate his religious views. But this is not surprising, because how would people react if they learned that he is a follower of Scientology, a totalitarian sect officially banned in dozens of countries around the world? This organization is officially considered by the FSB as dangerous and a wing of American intelligence. Again, Ozerov does not even hide his close cooperation with Radio Liberty, funded by the US State Department. Meanwhile, books on Scientology are included in the federal list of extremist materials. But this is all nothing - Ozerov continues to shove them right and left to employees, conduct courses, all the while hiding behind a deputy mandate. Here is such a simple Soviet man, a simple Soviet guy!
“In 1991, he returned to Kostroma and began working as a senior electrical mechanic for radio and television equipment at the Kostroma Regional Radio and Television Transmission Center. Today Andrey Ozerov is the chairman of the board of directors of the largest company in Kostroma, Akson Holding."»
In fact, Axon Holding is just the tip of the iceberg.
KB "Aksonbank" LLC "Technopark", LLC "Realist", LLC "Fregat", LLC "Tavi", LLC "Yard", LLC "Interior", LLC "Armada", LLC "Stroyopt", LLC "Mion", LLC "Svirel", LLC "Brig", LLC "Promstroy", LLC "Albatross", LLC "Ivanovosetremont", LLC "Premier Office", LLC "Stroy-ka", LLC "Lis", LLC "Yumis", LLC " Stroymarket", Prommetall LLC, Spetstrans LLC. » LLC “Yat”, LLC YUPK “Yudol”, IP Kalabina LLC “Linkor”, “Russian Batik”...
Here is just part of the empire of this honest guy from the people. In total, there are more than 100 companies under his control!!
You can call me a skeptic, but I don’t believe that a former electrical mechanic could honestly earn all this, even if he spent his entire youth in Siberia and the Far East. Indirectly supporting my opinion is the fact that Ozerov gave loans alone to these companies from his pocket bank in the amount of 590 million rubles. I don’t know how much money our deputy has, but on his own deposit account in Aksonbank there are 50 million or more, and under its guarantee Alfa Bank is ready to issue loans for a whole BILLION!! And he can still tell people who receive 6,000 rubles. per month, about justice, about the fact that he understands how hard life is for them?
Although it cannot be said that Ozerov does not share this wealth with others - and as is correctly written in his biography - "he has a hospitable home". That's right - a well-fed crowd of officials, entrepreneurs, journalists and other elite people are happy to go on a spree with the oligarch's money. And, of course, they will all do everything to ensure that the feeder is not taken away. So Ozerov comes out white and fluffy.
Further about Andrei Alexandrovich writes to us that he has “ big beautiful family" - and, really, what else can you call cohabitation with a woman whom he is afraid to marry, since she can squeeze out his millions in a divorce?! But, on the other hand, this did not stop him from literally pulling her out of the hands of the law several times - the criminal aunt was involved in a fatal accident TWICE (!!), in 2007 and 2009, but did not even lose her license.
A separate question arises about his relationship with his personal driver, who turned out to be a serial maniac rapist, but continued to drive his boss. Even the fact that a video of one of the rapes was posted online didn’t help!
In light of all this, his final sentence in his official biography appears in a completely different light.
“His position: “If a person knows how to take care of his family and enterprise, he is able to work for the benefit of others.”
About the company "Akson Holding" is one of the largest production and trading structures in Central Russia, combining a number of systemically important activities: a network of hypermarkets of construction and finishing materials AKSON, a bank, a transport company, a leading online store in the DIY market Akson Quick, a whole range service and production divisions. The founding date of the enterprise is October 21, 1992. The main organizer of all endeavors and the inspirer of ideas is Andrey Aleksandrovich Ozerov. The Trade Division of Axon Holding consists of a developed retail business and a large network of wholesale offices. Modern and technologically advanced AKSON hypermarkets are located in Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Cherepovets, Vologda, Rybinsk and Ivanovo. In addition, the network includes two cash&carey stores in Ulyanovsk and Kirov. According to experts, more than 1.5 million customers visit the trading floors of AKSON hypermarkets every month. This allows the AKSON retail chain to be considered the largest player in the country’s building and finishing materials market. Our hypermarkets employ more than 2,500 employees. We constantly make sure that our employees are satisfied with the working conditions in the company. The company's personnel policy is aimed at continuous improvement remuneration systems, internal training and advanced training, development social programs. A stable, highly paid job in our retail network is an absolute advantage of AKSON in the market, as well as a real opportunity for young, ambitious and talented people to realize their potential and develop together with the company. www.hh.akson.ru Wholesale trade direction Axon Holding is a network of sales offices in all regions of the company's presence. The sale of construction and finishing materials is carried out in two main vectors - provision of construction projects and work with trading organizations in the regions of presence. Dealer agreements allow for sales at the most favorable prices for customers. Despite the large volumes, the main advantage of the wholesale business has always been the speed of order fulfillment. aksontrade.ru/vakansii.html Aksonbank has a reputation as a solid and reliable financial institution. The bank was founded in 1990, and over 25 years of operation has become a powerful independent participant financial market. Today it is one of the most dynamically developing commercial banks in the Kostroma, Yaroslavl and Vologda regions. The bank has an extensive branch network. The development of the network of additional offices keeps pace with the development of the hypermarket network. Aksonbank uses modern innovative approaches, is highly mobile in the market, and offers customers and partners unique products that take into account the current market conditions and customer requests. An important success factor was the high level of service, individual approach, and a strong and professional management team. www.aksonbank.ru "Spetstrans" is its own transport and logistics company, dealing with all issues of cargo delivery in the areas of presence of Axon Holding. A modern fleet of vehicles, operational experience and the introduction of new technologies are the key to the successful development of a transport enterprise that is part of Axon Holding. "Spetstrans" has united under its leadership smart and energetic specialists from various fields. Spetstrans actively cooperates with trading and manufacturing companies in Kostroma, Moscow, Yaroslavl, Cherepovets, Vologda, Ivanovo, Arkhangelsk, Vladimir, Kirov and other cities. The company uses unique logistics developments that make it possible to organize the delivery of goods in the shortest possible time. www.spectrans-k.ru Furniture factory "Takos" is a large manufacturer of modern and practical furniture for kitchens and bathrooms, upholstered furniture and office spaces. Production is focused on working with environmentally friendly materials and reliable modern fittings. Tacos offers its customers a large selection of comprehensive solutions for residential and office premises. Each client can feel like a designer and choose the desired combination of colors, sizes, and objects. The Tacos company is following the path of dynamic integrated development. We are constantly working to expand our range, improve production technology, and search for innovative design solutions. The factory personnel are highly professional specialists who have the opportunity to use their talent in modern, advanced technological production. www.takos.ru In 2014, a new production division appeared as part of Axon Holding - the textile factory "Nrava". The factory's products include beautiful and modern home textiles, bed linen, curtains. It is represented not only in the AKSON hypermarket chain, but also in other retail networks all around Russia. The enterprise is equipped in accordance with all existing technological advances in the industry and is staffed by competent and professional employees. The dynamics of Morava's development allows us to hope that in the coming years the company will become one of the leaders in the home textile production market. A subject of special pride for the management of Akson Holding is the Akson Quick online store, which is part of the holding structure as a separate division. Akson Quick is one of the most notable e-commerce projects in the country’s DIY industry, far ahead of its competitors in terms of economic and financial indicators. The success of Akson Quick is explained by the close attention of the owners to the development of the project and, of course, the high quality of work of a team of professionals, which is one of the strongest in the online trading market. http://akson-quick.ru Another production division of Axon Holding is the company "Strondor" - a manufacturer and installer of metal structures, a regional market leader in its field. The company carries out a full range of works on design, factory production, and installation of metal structures for customers throughout Central Russia. Most of Axon Holding's real estate properties were built with the participation of Strondor specialists and products. The best Kostroma specialists in their field are employed in production; the workshops are equipped with modern machines and technologies that allow solving the most complex design problems in a short time. http://strondor.ru We are sure: the result is ultimately determined by people. Axon Holding is a professional team of proactive and enterprising specialists with leadership qualities and the desire to do their job well. We are interested in attracting new highly qualified professionals who share our values.
Today, July 18, a MK correspondent went to the Akson shopping center on Gromova Street to buy wallpaper and glue. Our journalist's car was turned around; he and the driver were unable to enter the parking lot.
"At the entrance to the shopping center there are closed barriers. At the entrance there are unloaded trucks. A man in a black uniform without identification marks turns all the cars around. The doors to the shopping center are closed. On the grocery cart, on a sheet printed on a printer, it is written: “Investigative actions are being carried out.” We called our tenant partners, the guys said that people in uniform, in bulletproof vests and with machine guns were walking around the building,” our correspondent reported from the scene.
Yaroslavl residents confirmed on Yarportal that they were asked to leave the building: “The loudspeaker said that the store was “closing for technical reasons.” They didn’t let me pay for the goods, they quickly asked me to leave. They left under the cordon tape under the gaze of guys in camouflage. If The exercises were offensive: they walked, chose, wasted time and left without goods,” Olku wrote.
The Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that investigative actions are being carried out at the Akson shopping center as part of a criminal case initiated about six months ago regarding tax evasion on a particularly large scale.
It is worth noting that neither the Yaroslavl nor the Kostroma media wrote about any criminal case initiated six months ago against the Axon holding. Now this statement looks especially strange given the fact that the Akson shopping center on the street. Frunze in Yaroslavl worked as usual. As a rule, if a business owner is suspected of such violations of the law, everything is blocked possible ways to retreat, conducting special operations in all his companies. Has the business owner, Andrey Ozerov, been ordered? We will monitor developments.
Help "MK"
Today, the Axon holding is one of the largest regional players in the DIY sector: in its segment it occupies more than 25% of the market in the Kostroma and Yaroslavl regions, and is also the largest and most advanced operator in Cherepovets. The company owns an extensive network of stores and shopping centers. total area retail real estate owned by Axon - more than 60 thousand square meters. m.
The founder is Andrey Ozerov, born on April 11, 1966 in Kostroma. He graduated from secondary school No. 6, then studied at vocational technical school No. 9 in Kostroma. From 1984 to 1986 - Military service. After the army, he graduated from the Moscow Electrical Technical College and worked in the Far North for two years.
In 1992 he founded the company "Akson" and before being elected to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the sixth convocation (2011) was general director holding "Axon" ( banking sector, wholesale and retail building materials, furniture retail, agricultural production and other areas).
In 1998 -1999 underwent professional retraining at the Academy National economy under the Government of the Russian Federation with a degree in Euromanagement.
In 2000, he was elected as a deputy of the Kostroma Regional Duma, and to this day he is an active politician, a member of the “A Just Russia” faction.
Married, four children.
