Lenta completes acquisition of Kesko food retail business in Russia | Progresiv

Russian retailer Lenta has announced that it has completed the purchase of the food retail business operated by Finland’s Kesko in Russia, located chiefly around the St. Petersburg and Leningradskiy region.

The acquisition includes 10 hypermarkets and one supermarket operating under the K-Ruoka brand, most of which were opened between 2012 and 2015. Two stores were opened this year.

The total sales area of the acquired stores is 42,500 square metres, of which approximately 40,200 square metres are owned and approximately 2,300 square metres are leased.

Lenta said that the stores are ‘highly complementary to Lenta’s existing stores in Saint-Petersburg and the Leningradskiy region’.

“The stores have excellent urban locations and well-trained store teams who we welcome to the Lenta family,” said Lenta CEO Jan Dunning. “We will soon operate the stores under the Lenta brand, with Lenta assortment, supply chain and business processes. We expect the integration process to be largely complete by year-end.

“With this acquisition, we now expect to open at least 50 new hypermarkets in 2016. While Lenta remains primarily focused on its successful organic expansion, we welcome opportunities to augment this by acquiring high quality assets such as the Kesko stores. Scale is becoming increasingly important in the Russian market which is likely to lead to consolidation of both larger and smaller players over time. Lenta is well positioned to selectively take advantage of any opportunities that may arise in the future.” (www.esmmagazine.com)