Lenta is one of the leading hypermarket chains in Russia operating 37 trade stores throughout the country – fourteen in St. Petersburg, four in Novosibirsk, two in Nizhny Novgorod, two in Krasnodar and Omsk, one each in Barnaul, Novgorod, Petrozavodsk, Togliatti, Tyumen, Astrakhan, Volgograd, Ryazan, Naberezhnie Chelny, Saratov, Penza, Novorossiysk and Cherepovets.
Lenta prides itself in providing customers with high quality goods, a large selection and the lowest prices on the market by eliminating the middleman where possible. Our headquarters are located in the North-West region of Russia in St. Petersburg.
Founded by Oleg Zherebtsov in 1993, we registered the "Lenta" trademark in 1994, and by 1997, we operated three small Lenta-branded “Cash & Carry” warehouse stores in St. Petersburg. At that time we were primarily providing a wholesale service to cafes, restaurants, and small retailers and were the only “Cash & Carry” format in the city. After the Russian financial crisis of 1998, we opened the first in our chain of new Lenta stores. Since that time, we have opened 25 more stores and pride ourselves in providing an extensive product range of, on average, over 13,000 food and non-food items. We continue to service both retail and wholesale customers, but today run a “big-box” format dedicated more to the retail customer . Our hypermarkets consist of on average 12,000 sq.m of total space including approximately 7,000 sq.m of retail sales area.
Our stores have a bakery, meat and fish departments, fresh produce and dairy sections, a seasonal area, household items, apparel, an electronics department, dry cleaners, pharmacies, and much, much more all under one roof. In addition, we provide a large, convenient parking lot for our customers at each store with between 400-600 parking spaces, and from 28-54 check-out lanes inside. Open 7 days we have revolutionized the standard for the retail shopper in Russia. Today we operate 26 stores in three regions in Russia – the NorthWest, Siberia and Volga areas. Eight complexes are also under construction throughout the country. Lenta has opened in February of 2007 a 20,600 sq.m. distribution center in St. Petersburg which it owns and which handles dry food and non food for the chain throughout Russia.
Timetable:
Lenta opens its largest hypermarket to date in St. Petersburg on the Tallinskoye Highway which leads out of town towards Peterhof and the Konstantinov Palace at Strelna. The complex has a total area of over 20,000 sq.m., consists of an assortment of over 14,000 items, has 1,000 parking spaces and 54 check-out lanes. It also has the capacity to cater to over 35,000 customers daily.
Lenta receives support from the EBRD in the form of a loan in the amount of up to USD 30mln to help fund its expansion efforts.
Lenta opens its next hypermarket in the northern part of St. Petersburg on Vyborgskoye Highway near metro "Ozerki". The store is spread out over two levels and has a total area of 12,800 sq.m.
In April, Lenta enters into an unsecured syndicated term credit facility in the amount of €90 million with ABN AMRO Bank N.V. as the mandated lead arranger. The interest is at the rate of LIBOR/EURIBOR plus a margin of 280 basis points. Lenta uses the facility to refinance its existing borrowings and support ongoing capital expenditure and strategic expansion goals.
Lenta opens a second hypermarket in the center of St. Petersburg on Uralskaya Ulitsa, on Vasily’s Island during the first half of the year. Lenta receives continued support from the EBRD for its regional expansion plans in the form of a loan in the amount of up to USD 50mln.
In October, Lenta expands to Siberia and the Volga regions opening its first hypermarkets outside of St. Petersburg in Novosibirsk and Astrakhan. Lenta also opens a call center for its customers.
In November, Lenta announces that it has begun construction in Petrozavodsk, Novgorod, Omsk and Togliatti.
In December, Lenta opens its second hypermarket in Novosibirsk in Siberia and its first in the city of Tyumen.In late January, Lenta announces that construction has started on a new complex in Nizhny Novgorod.
In February, Lenta opens its first distribution center in St. Petersburg. The center measures 20,600 sq.m. and consists of a cross docking area and general storage for dry food and non food delivery to its stores throughout Russia. The USD 20mln project helps the firm optimize logistics and reduce handling and storage. Lenta announces the start of construction on its second hypermarket in Nizhny Novgorod.
In April, Lenta announces that it has started construction on hypermarkets in Rostov-on-Don and Ryazan.
In May, the EBRD takes an equity stake in Lenta in the amount of USD 125 million. Lenta opens three new hypermarkets – two in St. Petersburg and one in Volgograd (the former Stalingrad) celebrating the Grand Opening of the Volgograd complex on 26 May 2007. This brings the number of hypermarkets operated by Lenta to 17.
In June, Lenta celebrates the grand opening of its two new hypermarkets in St. Petersburg located on Ul. Rustaveli and in Pargolovo.
In July, Lenta opened its next hypermarket in St. Petersburg on Ulitsa Khasanskaya.
In September, Lenta opened three more hypermarkets in Barnaul, Omsk and Togliatti.
In October, Lenta opened its third hypermarket in Novosibirsk.
In November, Lenta has opened during the first two weeks of the month a hypermarket in Novgorod and in Petrozavodsk, both located in the North-West region of Russia. Lenta has also opened its first two hypermarkets in Nizhny Novgorod.
In November, LLC Lenta (“Lenta”), ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (“ABN AMRO”), Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft (“Commerzbank”), Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG (“RZB”) and ZAO Raiffeisenbank Austria (“RBRU”) (RZB and RBRU together referred to as “RZB Group”) (together, the “Mandated Lead Arrangers”) successfully signed a syndicate of banks into a EUR 200 million Syndicated Term Loan Facility. The transaction is Lenta’s largest international syndicated loan to date. The loan is priced initially at a margin of 1.40% over EURIBOR or LIBOR, depending on the loan’s currency. The margin may vary over the life of the loan depending on the debt level. Participation fees were 50bps (EUR 20mn), 35bps (EUR 10mn) and 25bps (EUR 5mn) respectively. Lenta plans to use the facility to refinance its existing borrowing and support ongoing capital expenditure and strategic expansion of its hypermarket chain to the Russian regions.
Lenta continues with its regional expansion having currently 3 hypermarkets under construction. In 2008 Lenta has already opened the stores in St Petersburg and Novosibirsk, as well as its first stores in Krasnodar, Ryazan, Naberezhnie Chelny, Saratov and Penza. So by December 2008 the current number of LENTA stores in Russia is 34 hypermarkets.
Lenta continues with its regional expansion. In April 2009, Lenta opened the store in Novorossiysk and Omsk.