Every second company in Russia has decided to cut costs

Next year, every second Russian company will begin to cut costs. Of these, the majority will reduce costs within 10 percent, 13 percent of companies – by 20-30 percent, another 2 percent – by 40-50 percent. This is evidenced by the results of a survey of the Aktion Finance service, writes Forbes.

Basically, the business plans to cut spending on marketing purposes. Half of the companies will refuse to distribute souvenirs with a logo, a third – from leaflets and outdoor advertising, 28 percent – from specialized exhibitions and conferences, 26 percent – from marketing research. Other companies will cut costs by freezing new product launches, promoting products and expanding marketing channels. Only 11 percent of respondents do not intend to reduce marketing costs.

Almost 60 percent of companies spoke about plans to reduce costs on logistics, including by optimizing transport loads and reducing the number of vehicles used or revising logistics routes. Representatives of companies also mention strengthening control over fuel consumption as other methods – two percent of firms are planning to switch to cheaper raw materials. In addition, companies will save by changing logistics operators, reducing transport repair costs, refusing to lease or switching from their own cargo containers to leased ones.

At the same time, employers are not going to massively reduce employee salaries. Only 5 percent of respondents are ready to do this, and 18 percent, on the contrary, plan to increase staff salaries by 10-25 percent. In this way, companies are trying to retain employees against the backdrop of rising prices, explained leading expert at Aktion Finance Daria Kovalchuk. At the same time, the majority of businesses (76 percent) intend to cut bonuses in the new year by 10 percent. Only five percent of companies are ready to raise bonuses.

The survey involved 590 representatives of medium and large businesses from the service sectors, wholesale and retail trade, light industry, construction and other sectors of the economy. The survey was conducted at the end of October.

At some enterprises, wages have already been increased by 20-27 percent. About 30 percent of companies intend to further increase wage costs by the end of the year, noted Central Bank.