OREANDA-NEWS. December 29, 2012. DIXY’s social campaign was awarded a diploma from the national program entitled “The Best Social Project”.

During the past year DIXY group of companies has continued to develop its social program. One of the most ambitious projects in 2012 was the social responsibility campaign named “We Build Playgrounds”. The project was launched in 2011 and has received the most positive feedback from customers. The program applies to all regions in the network and is aimed at establishing positive, neighborly relationships with the nearby residents.

As a result of this program, 29 playgrounds, 2 sport fields and one sport complex on the territory of an orphanage were built. All venues have successfully passed tests and compliance reviews from local city authorities and were entered into their budgets. The project will continue in 2013 as well. Over 50 applications for construction of playgrounds in different cities were received already.

In August-September around 60 parties for kids were held in different cities to celebrate the beginning of the school year. Each party was a gathering of a district-scale - the children were entertained by clowns and actors, inflatable playgrounds were built and each child has received a small gift.

In 2012 DIXY has developed a number of other social projects in different fields, including sports, providing support to seniors and families with low income, as well as corporate volunteering.

OJSC DIXY Group [RTS: DIXY] is one of Russia’s leading retailers of foods and everyday products. The first DIXY store opened in 1999 in Moscow and, after the period of intense organic development and purchase of Victoria Group in June, 2011, as of November 30, 2012, the Group operated 1,398 stores, including 1294 DIXY neighborhood stores, 45 stores under the “Kvartal”, "Deshevo", “Semeynaya Kopilka” brands, 29 Victoria supermarkets, 18 MEGAMART (compact hypermarket) stores, 11 MINIMART supermarket stores and 1 CASH (cash&carry) store.

The Company operates in three Federal Districts of Russia: Central, Northwest, Urals, and in Kaliningrad region.

As of November 30, 2012, the Company had a total of 483,374 square meters of selling space. The Company is the third largest among Russian national retail operators in the food retail market by revenue, selling area and number of stores. The Company employs over 37,000 people.

In May 2007 the Company raised USD 360 million in its IPO on the RTS and MICEX. A controlling stake in DIXY Group, OJSC (54.4%) is owned by the Mercury Group of Companies, a diversified holding company.

In 2011, DIXY Group's total revenue (including revenue of the Victoria Group, acquired on June 15, 2011, from the year beginning) amounted to RUR 122 billion (USD 4 bln).

The Russian business magazine Expert rates DIXY Group as one of the Top-100 largest Russian companies.