MCC Ukraine: Kharkiv region celebrates the opening of the 25th METRO Cash & Carry store

April 28, 2009, Kharkiv region – Today METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine opened its second wholesale store in Kharkiv region bringing the country network to 25 stores already on the sixth year of its operations.

With total area of 17.000 square meters the wholesale store is equipped with spacious parking lot for 343 cars, of which 112 are roofed. On a net sales area of 9.000 square meters the new METRO Cash & Carry store offers its professional customers a wide assortment of 29.000 food and non-food products under one roof at best possible wholesale prices.

METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine cooperates with over 1.300 suppliers sourcing over 90% of its food and non-food products from Ukrainian producers, distributors and importers. The company intends to intensify its co-operation with local producers, especially in fresh categories. Currently METRO co-operates with 36 food and non-food suppliers from Kharkiv region.

“With this opening METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine has reached a special milestone. Despite these turbulent times we continued our expansion in the country opening in Kharkiv region our 25th store”, said Jan Dunning, Managing Director of METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine. “Successful operation of our first store in the city shows that our wholesale concept is well appreciated by local professional customers. We are confident that our stable wide assortment at best wholesale prices will contribute to the further development of small and medium-sized businesses in the region”.

Kharkiv Governor Mr. Avakov, Head of Dergachivskyi Region Administration Mr. Katsuba and Jan Dunning, Managing Director of METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine, cut the symbolic ribbon opening the 25th METRO store in Ukraine.

After the opening ceremony the owners of local restaurants, hotels, bars, catering companies and traders participated in the HoReCa & Trade 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 product and wine tasting, in particular presenting the products sold under its own brands Aro and Horeca Select.

Since the market entry in 2003 METRO Cash & Carry has opened 25 wholesale stores: four in Kyiv, two in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Kharkiv, one in Lviv, Luhansk, Kryvyi Rih, Poltava, Vinnytsa, Zaporizhya, Chernivtsi, Mykolaiv, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Makiyivka, Simferopol and Mariupol. Having invested into the Ukrainian economy EUR 460 Mio. METRO Cash & Carry created 7 000 new jobs for Ukrainians.

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METRO Cash & Carry is represented in 29 countries with over 650 self-service wholesale centers. With more than 100,000 employees worldwide, the company achieved sales of € 33.1 billion in 2008. METRO Cash & Carry is a sales division of the METRO Group, one of the most important international trading companies. In 2008 the Group reached sales of € 68 billion. The company has a headcount of some 300,000 employees and operates around 2,200 stores in 32 countries. The Group’s performance is based on the strength of its sales divisions which operate independently in their respective market segment: METRO/MAKRO Cash & Carry – the international leader in self-service wholesale, Real hypermarkets, Media Markt and Saturn – European market leader in consumer electronics retailing, 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