You're reading: Russia’s Azbuka Vkusa store could be opened in Ukraine in 2013

Russia's Azbuka Vkusa food supermarket chain could open its first store in Ukraine in Kyiv in 2013, reads a survey of the property market drawn up by Colliers International Consulting Company in Ukraine.

“In 2012, among the operators of supermarkets/hypermarkets there was a trend for developing a new format – delicatessen supermarkets or premium-format supermarkets. The Russian chain of premium-format supermarkets Azbuka Vkusa has announced plans to enter the capital’s market (the average trading space of the stores is 600-1,000 square meters). The first store of the retail operator could open in 2013,” reads the survey.

The company did not disclose other details on the entry to the Ukrainian market by the chain.

In 2010, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) reported that the bank may lend Russian company Azbuka Vkusa 1.5 billion Russian rubles for new stores in Russia and Ukraine.

Azbuka Vkusa, founded in 1992, manages and operates a chain of supermarkets under the brand name Azbuka Vkusa (the ABC-book of Taste in English). It is a locally-owned and operated Russian food retailer. Currently, it runs over 50 outlets in Moscow, Moscow region and St. Petersburg.

The company first announced its plans to enter the Ukrainian market in 2007. Early in 2008, it raised its first loan worth $50 million from the EBRD, which was to be spent on the expansion. Its first two food retail outlets were to be opened in Kyiv, later on the company reviewed its plans.

Collіers Іnternatіonal is an international company providing services in the sphere of commercial real estate. It unites over 12,300 specialists, working in 520 offices in 62 countries.

The representative office of Collіers International in Ukraine was established in Kyiv in 1997.