The opening marks Lenta’s first store opening in Eastern Siberia 

St-Petersburg, Russia; 18 December, 2015–Lenta, (LSE, MOEX: LNTA) one of the largest retail chains in Russia, is pleased to announce the opening of its first hypermarket in Irkutsk, which now becomes Lenta’s eastern-most store.

The new store is a Lenta compact format hypermarket located in the “Silver Mall” shopping mall at 3/5 Sergeev st., Irkutsk. The store has a total area of 9,795 sq.m, with 4,745 sq.m of selling space and is open 9 am to 11 pm, seven days a week. A broad product assortment of 16,000 SKUs has been selected specifically for residents of Irkutsk and includes Lenta’s private label and federal product ranges alongside local produce. The store has 650 parking spaces and 28 cash registers. The property is leased by Lenta.

Lenta’s Chief Executive Officer, Jan Dunning said:

“This latest opening, our first in Eastern Siberia, further strengthens Lenta’s position as a truly federal retail chain. We are delighted to build on our presence in the region, a marketplace that will be well served by Lenta’s distribution network, stretching from St. Petersburg to Irkutsk.

Siberia is one of the key strategic markets for Lenta and since opening our first hypermarket in Novosibirsk in 2006, our presence in the market has steadily grown to 26 hypermarkets in 11 cities.

As Lenta looks to develop its long-term growth prospects in the region, we are committed to developing our business sustainably and as a responsible corporate citizen. We remain committed to working with the region’s suppliers to bring our customers the local products they want while contributing to the development of the regional economy.”

The opening in Irkutsk is Lenta’s twenty-fourth hypermarket opening in 2015 and brings the total number of Lenta stores to 132 hypermarkets in 67 cities across Russia and 28 supermarkets in the Moscow region and St. Petersburg.

About Lenta
Lenta is one of the largest retail chains in Russia and the country’s second largest hypermarket chain (in terms of 2014 sales). The Company was founded in 1993 in St. Petersburg. Lenta operates 132 hypermarkets in 67[1] cities across Russia and 28 supermarkets in Moscow and St. Petersburg, with a total of approximately 843,974 sq.m of selling space. The average Lenta hypermarket store has selling space of approximately 6,200 sq.m. The Company operates six owned hypermarket distribution centres.

The Company’s price-led hypermarket formats are differentiated in terms of their promotion and pricing strategies as well as their local product assortment. The Company employed approximately 30,655 people as of 30 June 2015[2].

The Company’s management team combines a mix of local knowledge and international expertise coupled with extensive operational experience in Russia. Lenta’s largest shareholders include TPG Capital and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, both of which are committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance. Lenta is listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the Moscow Exchange and trades under the ticker: ‘LNTA’.

A brief video summary on Lenta’s business and its Big Data initiative can be seen here.

For further information please visit www.lentainvestor.com, or contact:

Lenta
Anna Meleshina,
Public Relations & Government Affairs Director
Tel: +7 812 363 28 53
E-mail: anna.meleshina@lenta.com

Anastasia Kuznetsova,
Corporate Communications Manager
Ňel:+7 (812) 336 39 97
E-mail: a.kuznetsova@lenta.com

Instinctif Partners
International Media:
Mark Walter and Saule Jandossova
Ňel:+44 (0)20 7457 2020
E-mail: Lenta@instinctif.com

Primum
Russian Media:
Alexandra Semenova and Marina Shvyrkova
Ňel:+7 903 591 1519
E-mail: Lenta@primum.ru

[1] Lenta has changed methodology for calculating number of cities of presence and since 1 May 2015 all cities located in Moscow City and the Moscow region are shown as Moscow.
[2] FTE (full-time equivalent). Average FTE for 1H2015 was 29,776 employees.