Digital transformation of Hoff Tech in a turbulent market
10 November 2025
Introduction
Hoff Tech, a technology company within the retail holding Hoff, faced the challenge of maintaining efficiency amid declining consumer activity, rising inflation, and rising IT costs. In 2024–2025, the Central Bank's key rate hike to 21%, inflation, and an 8% year-on-year (YoY) decline in purchasing power led to a rapid decline in EBITDA for companies in the sector, sometimes even going negative.
Andrey Pluzhnikov, CEO of Hoff Tech, who began his career as a developer, spent 20 years in banking, and moved to retail eighteen months ago, spoke about the transformation. From a technical perspective, Hoff Tech's transformation involved a shift from a fragmented, monolithic architecture to a multi-layered microservices platform, the implementation of omnichannel logic, a new data warehouse, the abandonment of ERP as the center of business logic, and the active integration of AI into processes. Case study: during the implementation of the new data warehouse, each phase was linked to business value. The first iteration, over six months, yielded an annual benefit of 300 million rubles due to payroll optimization—the investment in the system doubled within a year.
Context: Market Challenges and Strategic Choices
Andrey reminded: "Companies that change may survive, but companies that transform thrive."
Hoff Tech has adopted a strategy that combines three tactics—"Fight, Flight, Freeze": increasing competition, launching digital transformation, but simultaneously stopping non-focused projects.
This made it possible to redistribute investments to key areas.