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railway operator East Line starts sending container trains to Kyiv from two logistics centres in eastern China: Nanchang, and,1,000 km to the north, Jinan.
Lemtrans, Ukraine’s largest freight wagon operator, increased its cargo last year by 23% y/y, Vladimir Mezentsev, the company’s general director, tells Interfax-Ukraine. With world iron prices jumping, Lemtrans carried 25mn tons of iron ore, 49% more than last year. The company, ranked by Forbes as one of Ukraine’s top 100 by size, wants to run private freight trains to the Black Sea ports. In a pilot program, Ukzaliznytsia has granted a provisional license last fall to a small Lviv freight hauler.
9.2.5 Retail corporate news
Epicentre K, Ukraine’s largest retailer, plans to invest $1.2bn through the end of next year, Petro Mykhailyshyn, Director General of the group, said in January at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine. To help finance the investment, more than triple the amount invested in 2019, the company plans to raise a loan from ING, the Dutch bank. Some of the loan would be used to buy equipment from Vanderlande, the Dutch logistics automation company. Atradius, the Dutch trade insurance company, would provide cover. Epicentre, Ukraine’s version of Home Depot, has 62 hypermarkets with a total area of over 1mn square meters nationwide. Recently, the company has invested in farming and logistics.
IKEA opened its first bricks and mortar store in Ukraine in January, at Kyiv’s Blockbuster Mall, the company announces on Instagram. The store will be the first in SE Europe new ‘city format’ – 5,000 square meters, instead of the usual 30,000 square meters. The Swedish furniture retailer has tried to enter Ukraine for the last 15 years. It was blocked first by corruption then by construction delays at Ocean Mall. Last May, IKEA started an internet store and was immediately overwhelmed. Since it opened distribution points in three Kyiv shopping centres: Auchan Rive Gauche, Metro Cash & Carry and Lavina Mall.
A second IKEA store in Kyiv will open this fall with the opening of Ocean Mall, developer Vagiv Aliyev said yesterday on the occasion of the opening the Ukraine’s first IKEA in his Blockbuster Mall. Due to coronavirus controls, visitors enter the new IKEA through a reservation system that sends an SMS to a mobile phone. Only 500 customers are allowed at one time at the new 5,000 square meter store. Mayor Klitschko welcomed yesterday’s opening saying: “This is the positive signal needed to attract other international investors.”
Despite the harsh spring lockdown, Foxtrot achieved a 20% growth in sales of its retail electronics last year, Foxtrot CEO Alexey Zozulya reports. On line sales grew strongly, with 9mn people visiting Foxtrot.ua. Half of online buyers took advantage of the new ‘self-pickup’ service at Foxtrot stores. Sales through all channels registered this growth: smartphones +14%; TVs +28%; computer equipment +67%; and laptops +80%.
French sportswear brand Decathlon opens this spring its third store in two years in Kyiv. With the new store, Decathlon will have 8,500 square meters of retail space in Kyiv – in Prospekt mall, Lavina Mall, and Retail Park.
73 UKRAINE Country Report February 2021 www.intellinews.com
