German discount retail chain Lidl has appointed Adam Miszczyszyn, 47, to lead the store’s expansion into Ukraine, business paper Lebensmittel Zeitung reported on Oct. 15.
German Lebensmittel Zeitung cited Lidl’s internal memo which indicated that Schwarz Group, Lidl’s parent company based in Neckarsulm, Germany, is going to enter the Ukrainian market.
According to Lebensmittel Zeitung, Miszczyszyn’s appointment was already approved by Gerd Chrzanowski, Lidl’s CEO.
Previously, Miszczyszyn headed Lidl in Poland for eight years, where the German food retailer already has 770 stores as of September, Polish Properties reported.
Overall, the company operates in 32 countries including Germany, the U.K., France and the U.S. Lidl has over 11,200 stores and employs around 310,000 workers.
Meanwhile, Lidl’s main international competitor, German discount retail chain Aldi, has registered its trademark in Ukraine, according to Ukpatent, the country’s intellectual property registrar. Aldi didn’t issue an official statement concerning a potential expansion into Ukraine.
In Ukraine, Lidl will most likely compete with Ukraine’s largest supermarket chain ATB, which was inspired by the business model of its future competitor.
The ATB chain is owned in equal shares by Dnipro businessmen Viktor Karachun, Gennadiy Butkevych, and Evgeniy Ermakov.
Currently, Ukraine’s chain operates 1,201 stores across the country employing nearly 70,000 people. In 2020, the chain added 127 new stores despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
In the next three years, the Ukrainian retailer plans to add more than 150 stores annually investing $400 million in potential expansion. As a result, ATB plans to reach a 20% share of the food retail market.
“We’ll open a new store every second workday,” said Boris Markov, CEO at ATB, Liga reported in April.
