Attacks on Wildberries' warehouses caused the company billions in losses
Wildberries, Russia’s largest marketplace, has suffered significant financial losses following a series of strikes on its warehouse complexes. According to analysts, the company has lost a significant portion of its logistics infrastructure, and the value of the destroyed goods is estimated at billions of dollars.
According to the latest data from Data Insight analysts, at least 12 large warehouse complexes have been almost completely destroyed. As a result of the attacks, the company has lost about one-third of its warehouse capacity.
Sergey Semko of Data Insight told The New York Times that Wildberries “has virtually no large warehouses left.”
Wildberries is Russia’s largest marketplace: the company has nearly 100,000 order pickup points, and its annual sales are estimated at approximately $74 billion.
Losses on a Regional Scale in Russia
The scale of the losses can be gauged by comparing them to the budgets of Russian regions.
To date, the company’s losses due to the attacks amount to nearly $6 billion, which is almost as much as the annual budget of the Krasnoyarsk Krai. Wildberries’ losses are approximately 1.6 times the annual budget of the Irkutsk Oblast.
For the Smolensk or Penza regions, this amount is nearly four times larger, and for Kalmykia, the Jewish Autonomous Region, or the Nenets Autonomous Okrug—14 to 17 times larger.
There’s no money, but hang in there
The destruction of goods affected not only the marketplace’s warehouse capacity but also the sellers whose products were stored there. A source close to the Kremlin told Reuters that the Russian budget lacks the hundreds of billions of rubles needed to provide full assistance to sellers.
War expenses are putting additional pressure on Russia’s financial situation. The federal budget deficit for January–July reached $78 billion, and military spending could exceed the initial plan by 40%.
This is reported by Russian propaganda media.
Ukrainian forces have begun attacking Wildberries trucks heading to Crimea.
Following strikes on Wildberries’ warehouses in Russia, the country’s largest marketplace has faced serious financial problems. The company’s revenue has already fallen by at least a quarter, and direct losses could exceed 100 billion rubles. Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service warns that the current problems may be just the beginning of a prolonged downturn for the company.
In Russia’s Voronezh region, officials report that a large Wildberries logistics center—which served as a key hub for the movement of goods and cargo in the region—has been hit.
