METRO Cash & Carry Russia opens its second store in Rostov-on-Don

Rostov-on-Don, February 27, 2008. METRO Cash & Carry announced the second store opening in Rostov-on-Don. The outlet starts operating for professional customers tomorrow. Today it welcomes its first honored guests: officials from regional and city administrations, partners and representatives of mass-media.

Rostov-on-Don has a port with access to five seas and is a big industrial, scientific and cultural centre in the south of Russia. Moreover, it is an important junction of several major traffic arteries. Hence, METRO Cash & Carry constructed an additional store in Rostov. The stable economical and socio-political situation, high customer potential and the city’s status as one of the biggest megapolises of contemporary Russia foster this decision.

The opening of a new METRO Cash & Carry store in Rostov-on-Don prolongs the strategy of regional expansion of METRO Cash & Carry in Russia and will contribute to the rapid development of the entire region. First of all, professional customers such as hotels, restaurants caterers as well as small and mid-sized businesses will find a wide variety of high quality products at competitive prices. This allows them to enhance their own business. Moreover, the biggest part of fresh products like meat, milk and fruits will be sourced from local producers and suppliers.

Main project characteristics of Rostov-on-Don store:
Investment  - about € 20 mln.;
Gross floor area  - 14 887 m²;
Sales areas– 8 800 m²;
Land plot area – 5, 4 ha;
Assortment (food and nonfood) - 25 000 articles;
Parking  – 500  car parking places;
New employments – 250.

At present time there are 39 METRO Cash & Carry stores in several Russian cities: Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Volgograd, Voronezh, Ekaterinburg, Kasan, N. Novgorod, Omsk, Perm, Samara, Saratov, Stavropol, Ufa, Yaroslavl, etc.

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 257,000 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