METRO Cash & Carry Russia announces the opening of its second store in Moscow region

Kartmazovo, December 22, 2007. METRO Cash & Carry announces the opening of its second wholesale center in Moscow region.  Today it hosted the first guests – officials from the regional and city administration, the press and partners. Tomorrow the store will be officially opened for professional customers – small and medium-sized businesses, small retailers, hotel and restaurant sectors, offices and agencies.

The METRO Cash & Carry wholesale center, located in Kartmazovo settlement of Leninskyi district became the 39-th store of the company in Russia. The entire network amounts to more than 600 METRO Cash & Carry stores in 29 countries worldwide. The opening of a new METRO Cash & Carry store in Kartmazovo was the eighth in 2007 (after the second trade centers in Nizhny Novgorod and Ekaterinburg and the first ones in Chelyabinsk, Tomilino, Novosibirsk, Omsk and Krasnoyarsk) in the framework of the company’s expansion policy in Russia. In 2006 nine METRO Cash & Carry stores were opened in Moscow, Lipetsk, Ryazan, Ulyanovsk, Naberezhnye Chelny, Orenburg, Perm, Saratov and Stavropol.

Main project characteristics in Kartmazovo:
Project investment: € 20 mln.
Trade area: 8, 736 sqm
Plot area: 6 h
Assortment (food and non-food items): 25,000 products;
Parking: 458 car parking places
New employments: 300

Despite the fact that METRO Cash & Carry has been actively reclaiming Russian regions in 2007, Moscow consumer market remains significant for the company.

Moscow consistently demonstrates great potential for further development of commercial business. Actively developing economy and infrastructure keeps on providing the conditions for expansion of METRO Cash & Carry in the Moscow region as well. "Although this year we enforced our presence in Russian regions, Moscow and the Moscow region remain one of the leading markets for further business development of METRO Cash & Carry. The rapid development of services and restaurant sectors, which particularly started few years ago, goes ahead," says Dr. Andrea F. Martinelli, the Regional Operating Officer of METRO Cash & Carry over Russia and Ukraine.

The professional customers of the second METRO Cash & Carry wholesale center will not only have the opportunity to choose from a wide range of products formed on the principle of "all under one roof", but also to take advantage of one of the most successful trade technologies in the world, saving their time and budget.

Metro’s professional customers, living in multi-million Moscow and Moscow region, will appreciate further benefits of the store opening in Kievskoe highway. After the opening of the second wholesale center in the Moscow region they will be able to optimize buying logistics resulting in additional time for the development of their own business.

"We know that our professional customers – HoReCa, small retailers and individual entrepreneurs – have already appreciated the proposed “cash & carry” concept that allows them to buy almost all that is necessary for the business operation quickly, in one place and at the competitive prices. We hope that the opening of a second wholesale center in Moscow region will contribute to the business success of our customers", says Dr. Andrea F. Martinelli.

Company information:

METRO Cash & Carry is represented in 29 countries with more than 600 self-service wholesale stores. With about 100,000 employees worldwide, the company achieved sales of about € 30 billion in 2006. METRO Cash & Carry is a sales division of the METRO Group, one of the most important international retailing and trading companies. In 2006, the group reached sales of about € 60 billion. The company has a headcount of some 264,000 employees and operates about 2,400 outlets in 30 countries. The operating business is performed by the sales brands which operate independently in the market: Metro/Makro Cash & Carry, Real hypermarkets and Extra supermarkets, Media Markt and Saturn – market leader in consumer electronics centers in Europe, and Galeria Kaufhof department stores.

More information at: www.metrogroup.de.

Contacts:
Oksana Tokareva
Head of Government and Public Relations Department
METRO Cash & Carry, Russia
Tel. +7 495 502 12 03
E-mail: Oksana.Tokareva@metro.com.ru