Migratory pizza: X5 may become a co-owner of Zotman Pizza

The Zotman Pizza pizzeria chain may receive a major investor in the person of the owner of Pyaterochka and Perekrestok, Izvestia has learned. The retailer can pay about 1 billion rubles for a minority stake in this business, and the parties intend to close it in the summer of 2026. X5 is looking for new sources of income in the ready-to-eat segment, which it considers to be the fastest growing, experts believe. By the end of 2025, this segment grew by 18.5% year-on-year, to 1.12 trillion rubles, the Infoline analytical agency estimated. Izvestia found out how grocery retail is transforming into a food-tech ecosystem and why it is increasingly looking in the direction of restaurants.

Why did the retailer decide to invest in this business

The X5 retailer (Pyaterochka, Perekrestok, Chizhik) is interested in buying a stake in the Zotman Pizza pizzeria chain, two sources with knowledge of its plans told Izvestia. An investment banker close to one of the parties also knows about this. The potential buyer is currently conducting a due diligence check of the business before the transaction, two of the interlocutors said. It is estimated at "about 1 billion" rubles, said a source close to the retailer. According to him, we are talking about the sale of an uncontrolled package.

The fact that Zotman Pizza was looking for a minority investor to build a new workshop is also confirmed by another investment banker familiar with its plans. The interlocutors did not specify what share the owners of the restaurant chain intend to realize. They plan to close the deal in the summer of 2026, a source close to one of the parties to the negotiations added.

A representative for X5 declined to comment. Zotman Pizza is "actively growing," a company representative told its CEO Konstantin Shurshin. According to him, all resources are focused on scaling the business, with plans to launch more than 30 new outlets in the coming years. However, he clarified that there was no question of selling the entire company. At the same time, the representative of the chain did not answer the question of whether the potential participation of the retailer was related to attracting investments, citing corporate ethics.

Zotman Pizza calls itself "the youngest and most modern pizza chain aimed at generation Z." It was founded in 2019 by chef Dmitry Zotov together with Stanislav Yenikeev and Andrey Dunilov. The format allowed each guest to choose any number of ingredients for their pizza from more than 30 toppings presented in front of them, at a fixed price. According to its own data, the network has more than 30 locations in nine Russian cities. The brand is developing according to the franchise, it has about 22 partner kitchens.

By the end of 2025, the total revenue of three legal entities (Zotman Khoreka LLC, Zotman Partners LLC, Zotman Foods LLC) amounted to 4.5 billion rubles, which is 32% more than a year earlier, according to SPARK-Interfax data. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, 32% of the Zotman Partners management company belongs to the Lemon Trust personal fund, another 31.5% belongs to another BF Trust personal fund (their beneficiaries are not disclosed), and the remaining 31.5% belongs to Andrey Dunilov.

X5 is the largest retailer in the segment of consumer goods (FMCG) by revenue. The group operates stores "at home" under the Pyaterochka brand, supermarkets "Perekrestok" and "hard" discounters "Chizhik". At the end of March 2026, she controlled more than 30.1 thousand stores. By the end of 2025, its revenue under IFRS amounted to 4.64 trillion rubles, which is 18.8% more than a year earlier, net profit before applying IFRS decreased by 13.9% to 94.8 billion, EBITDA (reflects earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation) increased by 11.4% to 285.5 billion rubles, it is stated in the group's financial statements.

Why is the ready-to-eat segment important to retailers?

The retailer's interest in Zotman Pizza is due to the desire to strengthen its position in the ready-to-eat segment, said Vyacheslav Berdnikov, head of the Public Equity Analysis Department at Sovcombank. By the end of 2025, X5 has become the leader among FMCG networks in the sale of ready-made food, according to the Infoline review. They estimated that the group's sales in this category amounted to 216.4 billion rubles, and its market share reached 19.3%. Analysts estimated the entire ready-to-eat food market at 1.12 trillion rubles (including VAT), which is 18.5% more than a year earlier. According to Infoline's forecast, this segment could grow by 17% to more than 1.3 trillion in 2026.

Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline Analytics, considers these negotiations to be a logical step for the retailer, given the growing demand for frozen ready meals. The deal will also provide an opportunity to test new models of customer interaction, including through dark kitchen and express delivery, Vyacheslav Berdnikov agrees. For X5, this is already a familiar experience: in 2021, she acquired the foodtech startup "A Lot of Salmon", which operates using the dark kitchen system - it cooks food only for delivery. The project was founded in 2018 by a former employee of Uber and Yandex.Taxi" Yakov Mendeleev and Alexander Mutovin, former Head of Corporate Strategy at Norilsk Nickel. The parties did not disclose the amount of the transaction.

Pizza is one of the most demanded segments of ready meals, Vyacheslav Berdnikov noted. And Zotman, according to him, is an already established brand that X5 Group can potentially make exclusive for its retail chains. This will increase the potential for delivery and purchases in the group's retail chains, he added.

Attracting a retailer as a co-owner of the business fits into X5's development strategy, Vyacheslav Berdnikov believes. It provides for entering new business segments through partners, Igor Shekhterman, the head of the company, told RBC in an interview in 2021. At the same time, he emphasized the importance of maintaining the startup's independence without integrating into the group's processes. Today, the retailer is developing ready—to-eat food in two directions - production (its own kitchen factories) and procurement, including through the development of strategic partnerships, according to its report on the results of 2025.