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Ukraine: Varus retailer to open 6 stores by late 2013, 10-15 stores in 2014
Omega LLC, which owns the Varus supermarket chain, is working to bring the chain to Kyiv, and forecasts its launch in the capital in the second half of 2012, Marketing Director Oleh Bril has told Interfax-Ukraine.
"We've never hidden our strategic interest in the market in the capital, and that Varus will be in Kyiv – it's only an issue of time. At present, work on financing the project is being done, a concept for a high-quality remote management system is being drawn up, operation and commercial business processes are being optimized and locations are being actively analyzed. According to our optimistic forecasts, the launch of the chain in Kyiv will be possible in the second half of 2013," Bril said.
He said that the development strategy of the Varus chain foresees continual expansion in the regions in which it is already present, and into new regions.
"At present, the company is mulling several proposals, and their financial attractiveness is being assessed. Next year we're planning to realize our ambitious development plans in full, with the expansion of [the chain's] coverage by at least two regions," he said.
He also said that by late 2012 three traditional supermarkets with gross areas of 5,000 square meters each will be opened, and the number of the chain's outlets will grow to 33.
Since the start of 2012, the Varus supermarket chain has expanded by 13 stores, 10 of which were stores of a new format – the convenience store. The chain, opening stores in five new cities and towns, added Kirovohrad region to its regional footprint (Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Zaporizhia region).
Today the Varus supermarket chain has 30 trade outlets in Dnipropetrovsk, Dniprodzerzhynsk, Donetsk, Dolynska, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Nikopol, Kryvy Rih, Marhanets, Novomoskovsk, Pavlohrad and Pershotravensk. The total sales area of the chain is 42,000 square meters.
Omega was established in 2000, it works in the food and non-food retail trade. The first supermarket opened in 2003 in Dnipropetrovsk.
Since 2010, the Varus chain has been producing 127 items under its own Vyhoda brand, and since August 2012 seven items under the Varto brand.
Since January 2012, the chain has developed a new format – the Varus-market convenience store. Ten such stores have opened in Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad regions. Their average area is around 600 square meters.
Earlier, the co-owner of the chain Ruslan Shostak said that he was developing the Varus chain in partnership with Valeriy Kiptyk: they hold 50% each in Omega.
The company's major participants by the middle of July 2007 were Austria's VAOL Holding GmbH (49%) and Shostak (50%).