GfK Rus

GfK-Rus Marketing Research Institute is a Russian subsidiary of the largest To Europe research company GfK Group. Russia At GfK explores consumer behavior and sales in the largest sectors of the consumer market - FMCG, auto business, retail, to trade home appliances market and, electronic engineers pharmaceutical market, telecommunications, finance, insurance market and others.

History

2024: Business Sale to Management

Analytical agency GfK, one of the largest in the field of analysis of consumer electronics markets, sells its Russian company GFK-Rus LLC to local management. The deal became known in June 2024.

According to information provided to the agency's clients on June 5, 2024, the decision to sell was due to pressure from the Russian authorities and the internal policy of the head office of NielsenIQ, the owner of GfK. The letter spoke about the restructuring of Russian business and preparations for rebranding, which includes providing analytics without GfK logos, Kommersant reports.

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According to experts interviewed by the publication, the Russian office of GfK can maintain its position in the market, subject to the preservation of specialized specialists.

It is assumed that when moving to local management, the cost of agency services may decrease due to a reduction in costs for foreign data centers. Anton Guskov from the Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Household and Computer Equipment noted that GfK has long been the leading analytical agency in the consumer electronics market in Russia.

The main players in electronics retail are guided by the data and forecasts of GfK analysts for several decades. This is an important analytical center for Russian business, which has no analogues at the moment, "Guskov emphasized.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, the situation with the sale of GfK is also related to legislative changes in Russia. In 2023, deputies of United Russia introduced a bill on restrictions on foreign ownership in companies analyzing the consumer goods market. A bill targeting companies such as GfK and Ipsos was passed at first reading in January 2024, but further consideration was delayed.^[1]

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