SPAR opens 11 new franchise supermarkets in Ukraine in Jan-Sept 2024

MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) - The SPAR supermarket chain opened 11 new establishments in Ukraine on franchise terms in the first nine months of 2024 in the Volyn, Rovno, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankovsk, Kiev, Lvov, and Chernigov regions, Ukrainian media reported with reference to the Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centers (UCSC).

SPAR is actively implementing digital innovations. In particular, the chain is developing the DRUZI mobile app as part of its loyalty program, seeing it as an effective tool for communication with customers. The number of the app's new users almost tripled to 100,000 in January-September 2024 compared to 2023.

SPAR, a Dutch franchise chain, is one of the world's largest chains of supermarkets and hypermarkets. It operates four types of retail establishments, i.e. SPAR Express (a neighborhood shop up to 200 sq. m in size), SPAR (200-800 sq. m), EUROSPAR (800-3,000 sq. m), and INTERSPAR (hypermarkets of over 3,000 sq. m).

As follows from the company's 2022 report, SPAR International operated 13,996 stores in 48 countries, and its trade volume grew 5.6% to 43.5 billion euros.

The chain's European segment included 12,387 stores, up by 376 from 2021, which generated a trade volume of 35.48 billion euros, 7.6% more than in 2021.

In Ukraine, SPAR has operated since 2017 as one of the VolWest investment group's businesses. As of the end of September 2024, SPAR's chain in Ukraine included 110 supermarkets.