Moscow, 12 May 2025 – X5 Group (“X5”, MOEX: “X5”), a leading Russian food retailer, announces the opening of the 2,000th store under its Okolo franchise brand. The store is located at 198 Pokrovskaya village, Gatchinsky District, Leningrad Region.
The landmark store was opened under a strategic partnership agreement, called CO-OP Okolo, with the non-profit Central Union of Consumer Societies of the Russian Federation (Centrosoyuz). Under the agreement, X5 will invest in the renovation of stores that are part of the consumer co-op. To date, 90 stores of this type have joined the CO-OP Okolo programme across three Russian regions: the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Leningrad Region and the Arkhangelsk Region. The latest store is the 56th Okolo-branded store to launch operations in the Leningrad Region.
“We are seeing strong consumer interest in the Okolo franchise across the Leningrad Region and St Petersburg. In 2026, we plan to open a dedicated Okolo distribution centre in St Petersburg, which together with the acquisition of specialised vehicles will enable us to enhance our value proposition and improve our service. A special feature of our offering that particularly appeals to new franchisees is the user-friendly Okolo mobile app, which enables users to order products from both X5 and a wide range of external suppliers, compare prices for the same items and build an optimal assortment – all in a single place,” said Okolo Managing Director Igor Pletnev.
The Okolo franchise is designed for experienced entrepreneurs who already operate a retail business. Orders are placed via the OKOLO.Market platform, which operates on the classifieds business model. In January 2025, the supplier commission on the platform was reduced to 0.01%, resulting in an inflow of new sellers and their respective customer bases.
Since the platform’s relaunch under X5 in October last year, the number of unique suppliers on OKOLO.Market has reached 154, while the number of independent stores that make up the platform’s customers has exceeded 18,000. The active customer base of the OKOLO.Market platform is the main driver of the rapid growth of the Okolo franchise. Okolo-branded stores currently operate in 36 Russian regions, including the Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Chelyabinsk, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kirov, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Ryazan, Samara, Tambov, Tver, Ulyanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh and Moscow regions; the cities of Moscow and St Petersburg; the Krasnodar, Perm and Trans-Baikal territories; and the republics of Adygeya, Bashkortostan, Buryatia, Chuvashia, Karelia, Mari El and Udmurtia.