The Galitsky family’s economic history on the world stage is relatively short. Family patriarch Sergey Galitsky is the sole proprietor of the family fortune. The son of Armenian immigrants, Sergey graduated from Kuban State University in 1993. Just one year later, he founded a cosmetics and perfume wholesaler called Tander.
Tander was the base from which he launched Magnit, now Russia’s largest retail chain. Galitsky went from being a relatively unknown middle-income citizen of Krasnodar to being recognised as one of Russia’s oligarchs. Much of his inspiration behind founding Magnit came from Walmart’s model. Hence, Magnit was diversified into three different retail store types: convenience, cosmetic and hypermarkets.
Galitsky’s fondness of Krasnodar can be seen in his role as president of FC Krasnodar, a Russian league football team. The team has become one of his primary focuses as Galitsky left his post as CEO of Magnit and sold his 29 per cent shares in 2018. His aggressive expansion tactics have somewhat floundered amid successive years of inflation in an uneasy Russian economy. Magnit is now majority controlled by Russian bank VTB.
