Trends in the Ready-to-Eat Food Market, Kitchen Factories, Micro-Markets and Production Transactions in 2026The ready-to-eat food market in Russia has ceased to be a secondary category within reta

The ready-to-eat food market in Russia has ceased to be a secondary category within retail and foodservice. It is becoming an independent industrial sector where sales are growing, major transactions are taking place, investors are acquiring production assets, and companies are building centralised factories for the production of packaged meals, sandwiches, breakfasts, salads, hot dishes, frozen meals and products for retail chains, micro-markets, vending, coffee shops and delivery services.

It is very important to understand that large amounts of capital are flowing into ready-to-eat food, including funds involving state participation through VTB, Sber and investment funds. Given the fact that there is demand in Russia for inexpensive calories on retail shelves and that GOST standards were abolished back in the 1990s, the quality of ready-to-eat food will steadily decline. Against this backdrop, small manufacturers are receiving a window of opportunity to bring their products to market.

According to Infoline, in 2025 the ready-to-eat food segment reached RUB 1.12 trillion including VAT, which was 18.5% higher year-on-year. By the end of 2026, the market may grow by almost 18%, reaching RUB 1.32 trillion. The share of ready-to-eat food in retail food sales may increase from 3.8% to 4.1%. This means that ready-to-eat food has already become one of the notable drivers of food retail growth.

The same Kommersant article provides ready-to-eat food sales figures for the largest FMCG retailers in 2025.

X5 became the largest player: sales of ready meals reached RUB 216.4 billion, year-on-year growth amounted to 35.1%, and market share reached 19.3%.

Magnit’s ready-to-eat food sales increased by 43.5% to RUB 83.4 billion.

VkusVill’s sales increased by 10.8% to RUB 75 billion.

Samokat recorded RUB 46 billion in sales, with growth of 15%.

Yandex Lavka recorded RUB 38.2 billion in sales, with growth of 44.7%.

Lenta recorded RUB 35.6 billion in sales, with growth of 45.3%.

Azbuka Vkusa recorded RUB 28.9 billion in sales, with growth of 11.4%.

According to NTech, in 2025 ready-to-eat food sales grew by 12% in volume terms and by 27% in value terms. For comparison, the food market as a whole grew by 1.9% in volume terms and by 13.6% in value terms. This demonstrates that ready-to-eat food is growing faster than the food market overall.

People are tired and do not have time to cook. People overeat due to stress. They need more time to recover and rest. They want to sleep longer or watch another episode of a television series, scrolling through social media.

At the same time, sources record not only growth in demand but also production-side constraints on growth.

According to Infoline, the main limitation is not so much consumer demand as companies’ ability to consistently produce the required volume of products, maintain quality, control write-offs, logistics and manual labour. It is also noted that launching the category requires significant investment, average EBITDA profitability in the market does not exceed 10%, the payback period for investments may exceed ten years, and retail write-offs due to short shelf lives reach 9–11%, compared with 3–4% on average across retail chains.

Kolomensky Acquires Prodmaster: Industrialisation of the Ready-to-Eat Food Market

RBC reported that the bakery and confectionery holding company Kolomensky acquired the St Petersburg-based company Prodmaster, which specialises in the production of ready-to-eat food.

The transaction included a production complex with an area of 6,000 square metres in St Petersburg and approximately 1,500 food recipes.

The owner of Kolomensky, Alexey Tulupov, explained that ready-to-eat food production would become a separate business line, which the holding intends to transform into an industrial-format operation and develop through investment.

In other words, a professional company founded by two female entrepreneurs in St Petersburg, after 20 years of operating the business, sold it at its peak to a state-backed holding and completed an exit.

Prodmaster produced ready-to-eat products under private labels, including products for Pyaterochka, Perekrestok, Auchan and VkusVill.

Its private labels included Restoria, Perekrestok Chef, VkusVill Cooks and others.

Prodmaster’s brand “Restoria” was one of the few brands on the market that was highly concerned with product quality. VkusVill also operates an extremely strict quality-control system through consumer voting across various platforms and retail displays.

At a certain point, federal retail chains demanded even lower prices for new product lines. The owners faced a choice: maintain quality and trust in the brand or begin to compromise product quality. They chose to sell.

The company had been growing steadily year after year in both profit and revenue. Prodmaster’s financial indicators also demonstrate rapid growth.

According to financial statements cited by RBC, the company’s revenue in 2024 amounted to RUB 4.2 billion, while net profit reached RUB 354 million.

A year earlier, revenue stood at RUB 2.3 billion and net profit at RUB 188 million.

Investment banker Ilya Shumov, quoted by RBC, stated that Prodmaster’s revenue had increased fourfold since 2021.

Estimates of the transaction value vary.

According to Mikhail Burmistrov, Chief Executive Officer of Infoline Analytics, the acquisition of Prodmaster may have cost Kolomensky no less than RUB 2 billion.

Investment banker Ilya Shumov valued the asset at approximately RUB 1.8 billion.

The source also notes that Prodmaster is among the five largest ready-to-eat food manufacturers in Russia.

For Kolomensky, the acquisition of Prodmaster was not an isolated expansion but part of a new production strategy.

RBC reports that Kolomensky has been operating since 1956, owns 14 production facilities across Moscow, the Moscow Region, St Petersburg and the Tver Region, produces more than 1,500 tonnes of products per day, and generated RUB 60 billion in revenue in 2024.

In 2020, Kolomensky became Russia’s largest bread producer by revenue.

In spring 2022, the holding acquired the Russian business of Fazer and its entire supply package for X5 Retail Group.

RBC also reports that Kolomensky plans to develop ready-to-eat food production at other sites.

In particular, a plant in Balashikha is expected to produce snack-category products, including sandwiches, wraps and other items.

According to the holding’s Chief Executive Officer Dmitry Kozlov, the project cost will exceed RUB 900 million.

In addition, Kolomensky plans to produce frozen ready-to-eat meals.

Tsekh 85 and Boomerang Capital: Investors Buy Production Infrastructure

The second important block of transactions and investments is connected with the Tsekh 85 chain.

RBC and Kommersant reported that the investment fund Boomerang Capital became a co-owner of the Tsekh 85 group.

According to Kommersant, the fund acquired a 50% stake in Tsekh 85 from former co-owner of 585 Zolotoy, Alexey Feliksov, and became the managing partner of the business.

The second co-owner, Anton Petrov, retained his 50% stake.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

Yury Levitsky, Investment Director of BGP Capital, estimated the value of Vesyoly Kupec LLC, the main operating company of Tsekh 85, at RUB 500–600 million.

Accordingly, the 50% stake may have been worth RUB 250–300 million.

Tsekh 85 was founded in 2016 by Alexey Feliksov and Anton Petrov.

According to available sources, the group operates 175 bakery cafés in Moscow, St Petersburg and Omsk, with some locations operating under a franchise model.

The group structure includes ready-to-eat food production facilities.

The total area of prduction sites in Moscow and St Petersburg exceeds 10,000 square metres.

Financial figures for Vesyoly Kupec LLC, cited by Kommersant, show that revenue in 2025 amounted to RUB 180.1 million, representing year-on-year growth of 1.4%.

Net profit declined by 5.2% to RUB 80 million.

The article notes that Boomerang Capital views Tsekh 85 as an asset with scaling potential and as part of a broader portfolio within food retail and foodservice.

The Tsekh 85 case is important specifically as an example of the acquisition of a bakery retail asset with ready-to-eat food production rather than simply a bakery chain transaction.

This links it to the broader market trend: investors are acquiring not only points of sale but also centralised production infrastructure.

Boomerang Capital is described in the sources as a fund established in 2024 by former head of Sberbank Capital, Vagan Gasparyan.

The fund invests in retail businesses and food products.

According to Kommersant, in 2025 the fund’s structures acquired a stake in the salad manufacturer Provence and invested in the production of frozen Roman-style pizza.

In early April 2026, the fund acquired the speciality coffee chain Double B and began negotiations regarding the acquisition of Cofix.

This demonstrates that the acquisition of Tsekh 85 forms part of a broader portfolio strategy focused on food, coffee chains, ready-to-eat meals and food retail.

GoodFoodRus and Lunch Up: The Micro-Market and Vending Model

A separate RBC source describes the development of GoodFoodRus and the Lunch Up brand.

The company launched the production of sandwiches and packaged meals in St Petersburg.

The new facility, with a capacity of 2 tonnes of products per day and an area of 1,000 square metres, was acquired in April from a former supplier to the Self micro-market network.

By the end of June, the company had already doubled production output and planned to increase capacity by a further 1.5 times before the end of the year.

GoodFoodRus LLC was registered in 2022.

Sixty per cent of the company belongs to Natan Belotserkovsky, son of Boris Belotserkovsky, the principal owner of Uvenco, Russia’s largest vending operator.

The remaining 40% belongs to GoodFoodRus Chief Executive Officer Nikita Teterev.

Under the Lunch Up brand, GoodFoodRus sells approximately 50 product types, including sandwiches, filled ciabattas, wraps and other products.

The main production facility, covering 1,800 square metres, is located in Moscow and produces 45,000 units of products daily, or approximately 8.5 tonnes.

In Moscow, ready-to-eat food is supplied to Pyaterochka stores, WorkEat micro-markets and Go! Poyedim micro-markets.

The Moscow division also provides catering services.

The St Petersburg facility expanded the product range.

In addition to sandwiches, it produces breakfasts, including ready-made porridges, syrniki and omelettes, as well as desserts, salads, soups and main courses.

Up to half of production is supplied to Uvenco’s St Petersburg division and Self micro-markets.

The remainder is supplied to the Coffee Like chain, Vendex vending machines and the meal-plan producer Grow Food.

According to company plans, by the end of 2025 increased capacity at the two facilities should allow production to grow by 60% compared with early July, reaching 20 tonnes per day.

GoodFoodRus is also searching for new sites in Krasnodar, Tyumen and Vladivostok.

The planned capacities of the new facilities range from 4 to 8 tonnes of products per day.

Potential investment volume is estimated at RUB 700 million.

According to RBC Companies, GoodFoodRus revenue in 2024 amounted to RUB 191.5 million, while net profit reached RUB 10.2 million.

A company representative told Shopper’s that due to capacity expansion, turnover during the first half of 2025 had already reached RUB 700 million, while the forecast for the full year is RUB 2 billion.

This case demonstrates the connection between ready-to-eat food, micro-markets, vending and centralised production facilities.

Unlike traditional foodservice, growth here is built not around restaurant dining rooms but around factories, packaging, logistics and distribution across multiple channels: retail chains, micro-markets, vending machines, coffee shops, meal-plan producers and catering services.

Qummy: Ready-to-Eat Food Without a Traditional Kitchen

Another investment case is the food-tech start-up Qummy.

RBC reported that a pre-IPO fund backed by Voskhod Venture Fund, Alfa-Bank and T-Bank invested RUB 400 million in Qummy, a company based in Krasnodar.

An additional RUB 40 million was invested separately by the Voskhod Fund.

The total amount of new funding reached RUB 440 million.

Qummy produces ready-to-eat meals and freezes them using its proprietary Smart Ice technology.

In this form, food can be stored for 180–360 days.

Reheating takes place in a Qummy robotic oven, which automatically recognises the dish and selects the appropriate finishing programme.

The model is designed for foodservice in delivery dark stores, offices, petrol stations and hotels without kitchens.

Since its foundation in 2019, this was Qummy’s sixth investment round.

The total amount raised in previous rounds was approximately RUB 680 million.

The previous round took place in late 2023 and early 2024, when the company attracted RUB 93 million from the Voskhod Fund, Moscow Seed Fund and two private investors.

At that time, the company was valued at RUB 1.6 billion.

Following the new round, Qummy’s valuation increased to RUB 2.4 billion post-money.

Within the pre-IPO round, the fund received a 16.5% stake in the company, while Voskhod separately received 1.7%.

The company plans to use the funds to increase the number of locations from 1,000 to 5,000 and grow revenue to more than RUB 2 billion.

Qummy founder Artyom Simonyants stated that the company is targeting an IPO in 2028.

According to 2024 results, Qummy LLC generated revenue of RUB 385 million and recorded a net loss of RUB 142 million.

The article also cites Simonyants’ estimate that the ready-to-eat food market currently amounts to RUB 3 trillion and, according to some experts, may grow to RUB 10 trillion by 2030.

Factors supporting the Qummy model include shortages of chefs and kitchen staff, a lack of delivery personnel and tighter migration policies.

According to the founder, the model allows food outlets to operate without chefs or kitchens, using two employees instead of twenty.

Product and Taste Trends in the Ready-to-Eat Food Market

A separate series of Kommersant sources focuses on assortment and consumer taste trends within the ready-to-eat food market.

According to the Association of Ready-to-Eat Food Producers and Suppliers, cited by Kommersant, the ready-to-eat food market may reach RUB 14 trillion by 2030, which is 3.7 times larger than its current volume of RUB 3.8 trillion.

Association President Sergey Belyakov stated that while ready-to-eat food accounted for approximately 3% of Russian retail sales in 2023, by 2025 the share had already reached 5%.

Kommersant also cites data from the Cooper delivery service, according to which 38% of customers regularly add ready-to-eat food to their orders.

In 2025, the nationwide category leaders in ready-to-eat food, according to the Association, were:

• Rice porridge with milk;

• Korean-style carrots;

• Olivier salad;

• Caesar salad;

• Herring under a fur coat;

• Carbonara pasta;

• Chicken borscht.

One of the strongest taste trends of recent years has been the growth of Asian cuisine.

According to Cooper, Asian cuisine ranks third in popularity among consumers across all regions of Russia.

In the Volga region, Asian dishes are preferred by 20.2% of consumers.

In the Urals, the figure is 18.7%.

In Siberia, 17.3%.

In the North Caucasus, 16.9%.

According to AKORT estimates, sales of Asian products, including ready-to-eat meals, increased by 10–40% over the past year depending on the subcategory.

Within ready-to-eat food assortments, the following products are gaining popularity:

• Tom Yum;

• Pho Bo;

• Ramen;

• Wok dishes;

• Korean salads;

• Sushi;

• Rolls.

Retailers are also beginning to test semi-automated food preparation formats inside stores.

Kommersant cites the example of Magnit, which has started opening self-service ramen stations in convenience stores.

Customers can receive a hot bowl of ramen within a few minutes, placing the format somewhere between ready-to-eat food, retail and quick-service foodservice.

Key Conclusions from the Market Developments

From these market events and figures, the following conclusions can be drawn.

First

Federal retailers are rapidly increasing their ready-to-eat food sales.

These include X5, Magnit, VkusVill, Samokat, Yandex Lavka, Lenta and Azbuka Vkusa.

Their sales are measured in tens and hundreds of billions of roubles.

For them, ready-to-eat food is a driver of customer traffic, purchase frequency and food retail growth.

The market is beginning to consolidate around retail chains.

Small players are likely to face significant challenges.

Second

Large industrial manufacturers are entering the ready-to-eat food market through acquisitions and investment.

The key example is Kolomensky, which acquired Prodmaster and announced plans to transform the ready-to-eat food business into an industrial-format operation.

In this segment, production capacity, recipe portfolios, experience with private-label manufacturing and relationships with federal retail chains are of critical importance.

Third

Investment funds are building portfolios around ready-to-eat food, coffee chains, bakery retail, salads, frozen products and foodservice.

The key example is Boomerang Capital, with its acquisition of a 50% stake in Tsekh 85, the purchase of Double B, interest in Cofix, ownership in the salad producer Provence and investments in frozen Roman-style pizza production.

Fourth

Manufacturers supplying micro-markets, vending operators, coffee chains and distributed sales channels are becoming increasingly important.

The key example is GoodFoodRus / Lunch Up, which combines sandwiches, breakfasts, salads, soups and main courses with supplies to Pyaterochka, WorkEat, Go! Poyedim, Self micro-markets, Uvenco, Vendex, Coffee Like and Grow Food.

Fifth

Technological models that operate without traditional kitchens are gaining momentum.

The key example is Qummy, where food is produced centrally, frozen, stored for 180–360 days and finished in robotic ovens at locations without kitchens, including offices, petrol stations, dark stores and hotels.

Sixth

Assortment trends continue to evolve.

At the mass-market level, traditional products remain strong:

• Porridges;

• Salads;

• Borscht;

• Pancakes;

• Traditional dishes.

At the same time, Asian cuisine continues to grow:

• Tom Yum;

• Pho Bo;

• Ramen;

• Wok dishes;

• Korean salads;

• Sushi;

• Rolls.

This is important for kitchen factories because assortments are becoming broader and technologically more complex.

Seventh

Production constraints are becoming increasingly important.

As the market grows, the primary shortage is no longer customers but rather:

• Production capacity;

• Qualified personnel;

• Logistics;

• Write-off control;

• Short shelf-life management;

• Quality consistency;

• The economics of manual labour.

As a result, transactions involving production assets are becoming particularly valuable.

Overall Conclusion

The Russian ready-to-eat food market is passing through a phase of consolidation and industrialisation.

The growth of retail sales, Kolomensky’s acquisition of Prodmaster, Boomerang Capital’s acquisition of a 50% stake in Tsekh 85, the expansion of GoodFoodRus / Lunch Up, investments in Qummy and category growth among the largest retail chains all demonstrate the same process:

ready-to-eat food is moving from the format of in-store culinary departments to the format of an industrial food-factory economy.

Small and medium-sized market participants need to prepare for very intense competition, particularly for labour.

Price dumping is likely to intensify, and food quality may deteriorate.

At the same time, this creates a window of opportunity for smaller producers capable of offering differentiated products, maintaining quality and developing specialised market niches.