Ukraine retail market is identified as one of the most promising in the world
It is a worldwide tendency that flows of investment rush into developing markets. This causes a rapid modernization in the global retail. More retailers are pursuing new growth opportunities. They start to compete for countries, which are new to modern retailing; they compete for smaller cities (as larger cities become saturated).
Ukraine continues to be an attractive Eastern European retail market; it grew by more than 25% in 2006. A majority of the Ukrainian retail market is still composed of family-owned shops, but many Ukrainians are beginning to prefer shopping in malls and supermarkets. Food retail accounts for almost half of the entire retail market and there are plenty of opportunities for foreign investment. Domestic competition, meanwhile, is heating up. Ukrainian food retailer Furshet, for example, hopes to beat out foreign entrants by nearly doubling its number of supermarkets. International retailers began to enter Ukraine in the early 2000’s. Rewe, Spar, Metro were some of the pioneers. Metro appears to have outpaced the others, expanding aggressively by opening 13 stores in the past 3 years. Its success demonstrates how lucrative the Ukrainian market can be. Auchan and IKEA are both actively looking for retail space. Italy’s King Cross, which builds and operates large shopping centers, is constructing a massive entertainment and shopping center in Lviv, set to open in 2008. The company is already planning to expand into other Ukrainian cities. The window of opportunity for foreign large-scale supermarkets and convenience stores will likely to open in the next year or two. Multilevel fashion malls and mixed use centers are expected to be successful.