Wholesaler Opens its New Store in Western Ukraine

20th METRO Cash & Carry store employs 300 Ivano-Frankivsk citizens

July 15, 2008. Ivano-Frankivsk – Today METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine on a 3,6 ha land plot on Vovchynetska Street in Ivano-Frankivsk opened its 20th store bringing into the region EUR 20 Mio. of direct investment and 300 new jobs for local citizens. With this project the total investment of the company into the economy of Ukraine reached EUR 380 Mio. and the number of new jobs 7,000.

“We are pleased to celebrate our 20th opening already in the fifth year of our operations. This is an important milestone in our development which brings to the region not only substantial direct investment but also creates stable jobs for local citizens. We trust our operations will also foster the development of the medium- and small-sized businesses in the trade sector – our professional customers,” – said Axel Hluchy, Managing Director of METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine.

The store constructed by Skorpion-RP as the general contractor together with 4 more local construction and design companies spans an area of 12,000 square meters offering a wide assortment of 28,000 food and nonfood products on a net sales area of 7,500 square meters. The store offers its customers a spacious parking for 267 cars, of which 80 are roofed.

To celebrate the opening of the anniversary METRO Cash & Carry store Mr. Anushevychus, Mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, Mr. Paliychuk, Governor of Ivano-Frankivsk and Axel Hluchy, Managing Director of METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine, joined the solemn ceremony cutting the symbolic ribbon in the presence of over 500 invited professional customers from HoReCa and trade segments. 

Before the opening ceremony the owners of local restaurants, hotels, bars, catering companies and traders visited the HoReCa and Traders Conference. The participants learnt about the METRO wholesale formula, loyalty programs and special services developed exclusively for HoReCa customers and traders. For them the company organized a product and wine tasting, in particular presenting the products sold under its own brands Aro and HoReCa Select.

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.

Within 5 years of operations in Ukraine METRO Cash & Carry opened 19 wholesale stores: three in Kyiv, two in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa, one in Kharkiv, Lviv, Luhansk, Kryvyi Rih, Poltava, Vinnytsa, Zaporizhya, Chernivtsi, Mykolaiv and Rivne. Having invested into the Ukrainian economy EUR 380 Mio., METRO Cash & Carry created close to 7,000 new jobs for Ukrainians.

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
Head of Corporate Communications department
METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine  
Tel. 8 (044) 492-11-80
E-mail: pr@metro.ua