German wholesaler opens its 19th store in Ukraine

Second METRO Cash & Carry store in Odessa moves closer to customers along coastline

Odessa, May 13, 2008 – Today, Odessa Governor Serdyuk and Axel Hluchy, Managing Director of METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine, cut the symbolic ribbon at the opening ceremony of the second METRO Cash & Carry wholesale store in Odessa, located on Marshala Zhukova Avenue.

Together with the first store opening in Odessa on Ovidiopol road in April 2005, the company’s total investment into the region exceeds 30 million Euros. The new wholesale store employs 350 local citizens thus bringing the total number of new jobs created by the company in the region to 700.

With construction works launched in January 2008, the general contractor Scorpion-RP together with 6 more local construction and design companies built the new store located on a land plot of 3.4 hectares.  

The new METRO Cash & Carry wholesale store spans an area of 12,000 square meters offering a wide assortment of 28,000 food and non-food products on a net sales area of 7,400 square meters. The store offers its customers a spacious parking for 252 cars, of which 86 are roofed.

Sourcing over 90% of its food and nonfood products from over 1,200 Ukrainian producers, distributors and importers, METRO Cash & Carry intends to intensify the cooperation with local suppliers. Currently the company cooperates with 23 local companies.

“Successful operations of our first store in Odessa prove that our business concept is highly accepted by our professional customers”, said Axel Hluchy. By opening our second store closer to the southern coastline of Odessa we substantially reduce driving time especially for our customers from the Hotel and Restaurant business from nearby summer resorts. ”

Before the opening ceremony the owners of local restaurants, hotels, bars, and catering companies (“HoReCa”) and traders visited an exclusive customer conference. The participants learnt about the METRO Cash & Carry wholesale formula, loyalty programs and special services developed exclusively for HoReCa customers and traders. For them, the company organized product and wine tasting, in particular presenting the products sold under own brands Aro and HoReCa Select.  

METRO Cash & Carry is a sales division of the METRO Group, one of the most important international retailing and trading companies. In 2007, the group reached sales of € 64.3 billion. The company has a headcount of more than 280,000 employees and operates about 2,500 outlets in 31 countries. The operating business is performed by the sales brands which operate independently in the market: Metro/Makro Cash & Carry, Real hypermarkets, Media Markt and Saturn – market leader in consumer electronics centers in Europe, and Galeria Kaufhof department stores. More information at: www.metrogroup.de.

Contacts:
Tetyana Babenko
PR Manager
METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine 
Tel. 8 (044) 492-11-81
E-mail: pr@metro.ua