Rewe Group expands store base in Russia

German supermarket chain Rewe plans to add 20 new locations to its existing store base in Russia this year. The expansion plans focus on central Russia, and on Moscow and the surrounding regions in particular.

New outlets of the grocery retailer will also be opened in the Central Blackearth Region (Voronezh, Lipezk, Belgorod, Kursk), in the Nizhny Novgorod region (Nizhny Novogorod, Dzerzhinsk, Arsamas), in the Vladimir region and in Bryansk. The expansion plans will also lead to an increase in the number of employees, which will increase by another 800 by the end of this year. "Despite the current economic situation, our performance on the Russian market has been very successful. In 2004, we launched our concept in Russia; since then, we have achieved annual growth rates of between 30 and 40 per cent," said Frank Hensel, CEO of REWE International AG.