OREANDA-NEWS. In Nikolayev, on Geroev Stalingrada avenue has been opened the first in the city METRO Cash & Carry wholesale store, which offers an assortment of over 28 000 food and non-food products on the net sales area of 7 000 square meters. Nikolayev Mayor, Mr. Chayka, Nikolayev Governor, Mr. Garkusha joined the solemn opening ceremony, the press service of  METRO Cash & Carry reported.

With the cornerstone having been laid at the beginning of August, three months later METRO Cash & Carry opened its doors for its first professional customers. Located on a land plot of 7.1 hectares the new METRO Cash & Carry wholesale store spans an area of 12 000 square meters providing a spacious parking for 380 cars.

METRO Cash & Carry invested into the project over UAH 125 Mln creating more than 300 jobs for Nokolayev residents. Sourcing over 90% of its food and non-food products from over 1 400 Ukrainian producers, distributors and importers,  METRO Cash & Carry is still working to involve more local suppliers.

Before the opening ceremony, METRO Cash & Carry held a separate conference for its HoReCa customers. Owners of local restaurants, hotels, bars and catering companies learnt about the METRO wholesale formula, which offers a wide assortment of goods under one roof at favorable wholesale prices and special services developed exclusively for HoReCa customers.

"By opening our new store in Nikolayev our successful concept of wholesale trade becomes closer to our professional customers in the region. Also we plan to strengthen the cooperation with local suppliers contributing to their development," said Axel Hluchy, Managing Director of METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine.

Within 4 years of operations in Ukraine METRO Cash & Carry opened 16 wholesale stores: three in Kyiv, two in Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk, one in Kharkov, Odessa, Lvov, Lugansk, Krivoi Rog, Poltava, Vinnitsa, Zaporozhie and Chernovtsy.

METRO Cash & Carry is an international leader in self-service wholesale for professionals, operating more than 585 stores in 28 countries. With over 92,000 employees worldwide, the company earned Euro 29.9 billion in sales in 2006. METRO Cash & Carry is a sales division of METRO Group, one of the largest retailers worldwide. METRO Group has annual sales of Euro 60 billion and includes the following divisions: METRO/Makro Cash & Carry, Real hypermarkets, Extra supermarkets, Media Markt and Saturn - the leading consumer electronics centers in Europe, and the department stores of Galeria Kaufhof.