Russian retailer Lenta has opened five new hypermarkets in Moscow, in addition to opening its 21st supermarket in St Petersburg.
The largest hypermarket chain in the country announced the launch of five stores on premises previously operated under the Nash hypermarket brand, as part of a long-term lease agreement in July.
The stores reopened after a complete renovation and a comprehensive internal refurbishment of the premises. The products on offer are tailored to Moscow residents and feature 20,000-28,000 SKUs, said Lenta.
Lenta also announced the opening of its 21st supermarket in St Petersburg, located at 27 Engelsa Street. It has a total area of 1,063 square metres, as well as 644 square metres of selling space, and is open from 8am to 11pm, seven days a week.
Lenta said that a broad product assortment of 5,500 SKUs has also been selected specifically for residents of St Petersburg, including private labels and federal product ranges alongside local produce.
Late Bloomer
“Despite entering the Moscow market later than our competitors, we are rapidly expanding our footprint here," said Jan Dunning, chief executive at Lenta.
"Moving forward, we plan to open four more hypermarkets before the end of the year, almost doubling our market presence in Moscow’s hypermarket segment. By the end of 2017, Lenta will become the second-largest player in the Moscow hypermarket space,” Dunning said.
Lenta opened its first Moscow store in 2013 and ended that year with ten supermarkets and one hypermarket. Currently, it has 21 hypermarkets and 39 supermarkets in the Russian capital.
Last week, it opened two new hypermarkets in Moscow and the surrounding area. It opened its 20th supermarket in St Petersburg in October and expanded into Siberia with the acquisition of 22 supermarkets from the Holiday Group.
The retailer opened 22 supermarkets in 2017, bringing the total number of stores to 209 hypermarkets in 80 cities across Russia and 70 supermarkets in Moscow, St Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and the central region.
The company posted substantial sales growth of 18.7% in the third quarter of its 2017 financial year, increasing to RUB 89.6 billion.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Kevin Duggan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
