Ukrainian drugstore retailer EVA has announced it has resumed operations in 'almost all' stores in the Kyiv region, as well as in many other parts of the war-torn country.
In February, before the conflict broke out, the group operated 1,119 stores across Ukraine, which was cut to between 700 and 800 outlets in the early period of the invasion.
At present, the number of EVA stores open across Ukraine stands at over 900, with further stores coming on stream all the time, the retailer said – updates are posted on the eva.ua website.
"Maintaining the network's operations wherever possible has been our main task since the beginning of the war," Viktor Sredniy, chief operating officer of EVA parent RUSH told the Retail Association of Ukraine website.
Between March and April, the group reopened four stores in the Sumy region, 27 in the Kharkiv region, and "almost all stores in Chernihiv and Kyiv", he added.
New Store Openings
The group has also opened three brand new stores in recent weeks, one in Bila Tserkva, which opened on 4 April, another in Kitsman, which opened on 28 April, and a third in Lviv, which opened on 29 April.
Negotiations are also underway to open stores in Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Poltava, however a "final decision" on these stores has yet to be made, added Sredniy.
"The rest of the projects are paused until the end of the war, because the opening of new stores is a big investment, for which we currently do not have the resources," he added.
Earlier this week, fellow retailer Fozzy Group announced that it has resumed the production of bread, confectionery and coffee-roasting at its facility in Vorzel, in the Kyiv region. Another retailer, ATB, has also recently reopened stores across Ukraine.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
