OREANDA-NEWS. On 04 May 2008 was announced, that сontinued growth in all regions of Ukraine with 5 new store openings in 2007 brings METRO Group’s investment into Ukrainian economy to ? 339 Mio.

Kyiv, 24 March 2008 – In 2007 METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine has successfully maintained its high expansion speed and increased sales by 33% to ? 818 Mio. (? 615 Mio. in 2006). Five new wholesale stores in Vinnytsya, Zaporizhya, Mykolayiv, Chernivtsi and Rivne were added to the store network creating over 1,500 new jobs bringing the total headcount to over 6,100. Since the launch of operations of METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine in 2003 the total investment of METRO Group into the local economy amounts to ? 339 Mio.

МETRO Сash & Carry Ukraine has intensified its cooperation with 1,200 Ukrainian producers, distributors and importers in the area of joint supply chain management activities thus providing customers with significantly improved stock availability in all stores. In addition, the company together with local producers enlarged its own brand portfolio by 20% to over 4,000 private label articles bringing the share of own brand sales to 8% of total sales in 2007.

A company-wide service campaign “Vasha Potreba – Nasha Robota” has been launched in June 2007 to introduce innovative processes and business solutions in all stores targeted to accelerate customer satisfaction. Furthermore, in July 2007 the company started a comprehensive remodeling process of all stores that were opened before 2007. As of today ? 2 Mio. were invested into the remodeling of all three Kiev stores and the Odesa store. The remaining 9 stores will be remodeled during 2008 with an additional investment of over ? 5 Mio.

"Our successful results in 2007 show that our wholesale business concept is well accepted by our professional customers in all regions of Ukraine. In order to ensure further above average organic growth also in 2008 we will continue a close cooperation with our professional customers by better understanding the success drivers of their business and offering new solutions beyond high quality products and best possible wholesale prices” – said Axel Hluchy, Managing Director of METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine.

During the coming years Metro Cash & Carry Ukraine plans to continue its expansion throughout Ukraine. The first store opening in 2008 is planned in Odesa where the construction works have already started.

Within 5 years of operations in Ukraine METRO Cash & Carry opened 18 wholesale stores: three in Kyiv, two in Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk, one in Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv, Luhansk, Kryvyi Rih, Poltava, Vinnytsa, Zaporizhya, Chernivtsi, Mykolaiv and Rivne.