St. Petersburg, Russia; 9 November 2017– Lenta (LSE, MOEX: LNTA), one of the largest retail chains in Russia, announces that it has signed a contract securing supply of farmed Karelian trout for direct deliveries to its hypermarkets in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Lenta is the first Russian retailer to have signed a long-term contract with a major Russian fish producer for trout to be grown in Karelia and delivered directly to its stores. The contract will enable Lenta to have full quality control over the entire supply and farming process while securing immediate farm-to-shelf delivery in the amounts needed. The fish will be delivered fresh to Lenta stores within 24 hours of being caught.

Lenta hypermarkets in Moscow and Saint Petersburg will offer consumers two varieties of fresh Karelian trout – Eco Trout, or trout grown naturally in river conditions closest to its natural habitat, and the lake-grown Choice Trout, farmed utilising special fish-farming nets. Lenta’s trout will be grown in Vuoksi, one of the cleanest water bodies found in the Leningrad Region, and a series of lakes linked to this river. Fish are fed with natural feeds and go through a multi-stage quality control before shipping. For our customers’ convenience, all fish will be sold gutted.

Lenta’s Commercial Director Herman Tinga said:
“While Russian consumers traditionally have a liking for fish, and restaurant consumption of fish in general is on the up, for ordinary shoppers it can still be difficult to find a good quality source of diversified fish products. Customers already know Lenta as a reliable source of high quality fish, with product selection already including nearly 60 SKU of fresh fish in all of Lenta’s hypermarkets across Russia, ranging from ordinary pollock to exotic barramundi. With this new partnership, we go one step further in offering a branded product which will be unique in freshness and quality, specifically grown for Lenta to our exacting standards”.

About Lenta

Lenta is the largest hypermarket chain in Russia and the country’s fourth largest retail chain. The Company was founded in 1993 in St. Petersburg. Lenta operates 206 hypermarkets in 79 cities across Russia and 69 supermarkets in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and the Central region with a total of approximately 1,234,420 sq.m of selling space. The average Lenta hypermarket store has selling space of approximately 5,700 sq.m. The average Lenta supermarket store has selling space of approximately 900 sq.m. The Company operates seven owned 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 40,400 people as of 30 June 2017¹.

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
E-mail: pr@lenta.com

NW Advisors
Russian Media:
Anton Karpov & Victoria Afonina
Òel:+7 495 795 06 23
E-mail: lenta@nwadvisors.com
FTI Consulting
International Media:
Leonid Fink
Òel: +44 7497 783 705
E-mail: Leonid.Fink@fticonsulting.com

¹FTE (full-time equivalent). Average FTE for 1H 2017 was 40,197 employees