At least five new Maxima supermarkets to be opened in Latvia in 2009

The new retail stores will be local in Riga, in Riga District's Pinki, Talsi (western Latvia) and Saldus (southwestern Latvia).

Maxima Latvija spokesman
Ivars Andins pointed out that even though the crises had a rather
negative impact on their ongoing investments. Andins did not yet give
precise information about the total investments to be made in
construction of the new shops, but he admitted that the economic
crisis has affected also Maxima's plans.

"We are still
adjusting the precise sum of investments, but we can already say that
because of the economic crisis and the shrinking purchasing capacity
of persons, investments will be lower than in previous years."

Even though the
company's future outlook is rather optimistic, it has had to freeze
several large scale projects this year, including opening Maxima
shops in Tukums (central Latvia) and in Liepaja (southwestern
Latvia). At the beginning of this year, the company employed around
6,500 people in Latvia. Maxima Latvija was ranked as 17th on the list
of Latvia's most valuable companies in 2008, drawn up by the magazine
Kapitals, investment banking company IBS Prudentia and the Riga Stock
Exchange.