The Praktiker Group, the operator of the German Praktiker DIY construction materials hypermarket chain, which earlier said that it plans to leave the Ukrainian market by late 2013, hopes that all four of its Ukrainian hypermarkets will be sold to a new operator who will continue operating under a new brand and without replacing employees.
"First, our goal is to close our business in Ukraine by late 2013. Of course, we're tuned to sell our stores to a new operator, who will continue sales with the employees who are working today, but under its own brand. However, we cannot rule out in full that a certain store could be closed," the press service of Praktiker AG told Interfax-Ukraine.
The company said that when the company entered the Ukrainian market in 2007 it was planned to open over 20 hypermarkets, but the global financial and economic tumult significantly curtailed the plans and the chain now has only four stores in Ukraine.
“You can easily imagine: it’s impossible to have a profit-making business in a large country with such a small chain, even if the indicators grew from year to year,” the central office of the chain said.
As reported, Board Chairman Armin Burger at an annual general meeting of shareholders held on May 29, 2013 said that the Praktiker Group plans to leave the Ukrainian market by late 2013.
Praktiker’s first construction materials hypermarket opened in 2007 in the town of Makiyivka in Donetsk region. Praktiker’s Ukrainian-based chain consists of four stores in Kyiv, Lviv, Makiyivka, and Mykolaiv.
Praktiker, founded in 1978, is the German-based chain of DIY-format construction materials supermarkets. It consisted of 414 outlets around the world as of the end of March 2013, including 315 in Germany.
