In January-June 2024, Varus supermarket chain paid UAH 700 million in taxes and fees to the state budget, the retailer’s press service reports.
“Every hryvnia of taxes paid to the state budget is another brick in building a strong economy of Ukraine. We are grateful to all the customers of Varus supermarkets, thanks to whom we continue to work and contribute to the support of our country,” comments Marina Panina, CFO of Varus.
In the first three quarters of 2024, Varus opened new stores in Pokrov, Zaporizhzhia, two in Odesa and renovated the store in Kryvyi Rih.
The release notes that the expansion of the network and the opening of new stores allows Varus to create and provide jobs for Ukrainians in different regions. The company pays special attention to internally displaced persons. First of all, the company helped evacuate and provided new jobs to its employees from the regions where active hostilities are ongoing. The IDPs are employed in all cities where the chain has stores. In the city of Dnipro alone, more than 500 IDPs have been employed in the chain’s stores.
In 2023, Varus paid UAH 1.1 billion in taxes and fees to the state budget.
The Varus chain has opened its fourth store in Odesa (91 Dacha Kovalevskoho Street), the retailer’s press service reports.
The new supermarket has the Varus Home format and was developed for the chain by YUDIN Design studio. The total area of the store is 1050 square meters, of which 622.31 square meters is the sales area, and in addition to standard cash desks, there will be self-service cash desks.
“The Varus Home format is an opportunity for our customers to buy their favorite products in a home atmosphere. The stylish design emphasizes the vector for continuous development and improvement, and it is also designed to make the time spent in the store even more enjoyable,” Anna Luganskaya, Varus Marketing Director, was quoted in the release.
She noted that more and more renovated supermarkets, in addition to a wide range of goods, offer products of their own production. The culinary department offers dozens of meat, vegetarian, diet and seasonal dishes. For lovers of pastries and hot pizza, Varus Cafe offers pizza and bread of its own production. The supermarket also has coffee machines that allow customers to make their own coffee.
Varus is a national supermarket chain represented on the Ukrainian grocery retail market by Omega. Omega’s authorized capital is UAH 111 million 129 thousand, owned by Weigant Enterprises Limited (Cyprus), with Valeriy Kiptyk and Ruslan Shostak as ultimate beneficiaries. In 2023, Omega’s revenue amounted to UAH 17.51 billion, which is 20% higher than in 2022, and net profit amounted to UAH 200 million, which is 69.5% higher than in 2022.
The first store of the chain was opened in 2003 in Dnipro, and the total number of its stores is 109 in different cities of Ukraine and a DarkStore in Kyiv.
The chain operates in several formats: classic supermarkets, To Go stores and the varus.ua conscious shopping service.
UT Company, created by co-owners of EVA and Varus chains Valeriy Kiptyk and Ruslan Shostak, has won a tender of the State Logistics Operator (DOT) for the supply of food to military units in one of Ukraine’s regions, the press service of Terwin Group reports.
“Ukrainian Transparent Company has committed itself to supplying food to military units in one of Ukraine’s regions by offering the best conditions at the tender held by the State Logistics Service. This is a pilot project that will last for two months and will significantly save the state budget,” the press release says.
The company did not disclose the cost of the tender. According to Shostak, the company aims to help the state make the procurement process transparent and efficient.
“Our main task is to restore trust in the state and business pride in cooperation with the authorities. And I want to emphasize that we supply products directly from domestic manufacturers to soldiers without extra charges; we finance all administrative costs on our own, we do not add them to the price – this is our contribution,” Shostak was quoted as saying in the press release.
According to Forbes Ukraine, the supplies will be delivered to military units in Zaporizhzhia region.
As reported, in October 2023, 17 companies managed by Shostak, employing a total of 30,000 people, merged into TERWIN. These are Omega LLC, Rusch, Tervin Group, Tixid, Tavria Hub, Mizhtneva, Formsite, Digamma, Milton Group, Saltora Plus, Firm Ariant, Novoe Stroitelstvo 2017, Altair D, Apex H, Aspect D, Lattero, and the Ruslan Shostak Charitable Foundation. The total assets of the corporation are estimated at $1.6 billion. The total revenue of the companies in the pre-war period reached $2 billion, and in 2023 it was expected to reach $1.7 billion.
ARMED FORCES, EVA, FOOD, VARUS
State-owned Oschadbank has provided a UAH 297 million revolving credit line to Omega LLC, the owner of the Varus supermarket chain, under the state program “Affordable Loans 5-7-9%,” the bank said in a statement on Friday.
“This is the fourth retail chain to receive financing from Oschad in the period from February 2022 to May 2023,” the release said.
According to the release, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the state bank has entered into loan agreements for grocery retail in the corporate business segment for UAH 1.6 billion, thus increasing the volume of financing for this sector by almost 3.5 times.
It is noted that Oschadbank has been cooperating with the VARUS network since 2014. The credit line was opened to replenish working capital for a period of 12 months.
As the state bank recalled, in 2022, Oschad entered into loan agreements with large corporate clients worth almost UAH 14 billion, while the corresponding loan portfolio increased by 24% and amounted to UAH 56.6 billion at the beginning of 2023. It is noted that since the beginning of this year, the volume of loan agreements has reached UAH 14.7 billion.
Omega LLC was established in 2000, the beneficiaries are Valeriy Kiptyk and Ruslan Shostak. The first Varus supermarket was opened in 2003 in Dnipro. According to the website, the chain currently has 103 supermarkets in five regions of Ukraine and the capital, with a retail area of 89.4 thousand square meters. Varus employs seven thousand people.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of July 1, 2023, Oschadbank ranked 2nd in terms of assets (UAH 324.74 billion) among 65 banks operating in the country, and first in terms of the number of branches in the country (1183).
