Germany’s Praktiker, one of the leading European home improvement and do-it-yourself hypermarket chains, opened its fourth store in Ukraine on March 12 and its first in the country’s capital city. During an opening bash held to celebrate the expansion, employees gathered for a team photograph (above). The new Praktiker hypermarket is located along the edge of Kyiv at Kiltseva 12, the highway which encircles the Ukrainian capital.
The 9,500 square meter facility now joins a chain which includes stores in Makiyivka, Donetsk oblast, the first to open in 2007, and later additions in Mykolayiv and Lviv. Praktiker, which in 2008 announced plans to open a total of 25 stores in Ukraine – each at a cost of about 9-11 million euros – had planned to open a store in Odesa last year, but the project faced delays. The German constructions and materials giant is reportedly considering further expansion, and could possibly bring four more hypermarkets to the Ukrainian market in coming years. Praktiker is one of a handful of foreign retail and food giants, such as Germany’s Metro Group, Swiss-based Nestle and US-based Kraft Foods, that have continued expanding in Ukraine despite last year’s deep economic recession. This month, Nestle purchased Mivina, a Ukrainian-based instant soup producer in a deal valued at more than $100 million.
