Moscow, 10 July 2025 – X5 Group (“X5”, MOEX: “X5”), a leading Russian food retailer, announces the opening of the 2,500th store under its Okolo brand. The store is located at 1a Vokhonovskoye Highway, Elizavetino settlement, Leningrad Region.
The milestone opening is part of CO-OP Okolo, X5’s strategic partnership agreement with the Central Union of Consumer Societies of the Russian Federation (Centrosoyuz), which provides for investments by X5 in the renovation of consumer cooperative stores. To date, 356 co-op stores have joined the CO-OP Okolo programme across six Russian regions: the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Arkhangelsk, Kirov, Leningrad, Orel, and Smolensk regions. The landmark store is the 100th COOP Okolo-branded store in the Leningrad Region.
“The Okolo franchise enjoys strong demand among cooperative stores because it provides access to a balanced product assortment of federal brands, along with X5’s direct-import products at competitive prices with payment deferrals. New and efficient supply chains to rural locations minimise logistics costs through order consolidation, ensuring competitive federal brand pricing at rural stores. At the same time, the OKOLO.Market platform creates new digital distribution opportunities for manufacturers, replacing traditional channels,” commented Igor Pletnev, Managing Director of Okolo.
The Okolo franchise is designed for experienced entrepreneurs who already operate retail businesses. Orders are placed via the OKOLO.Market platform, which is based on the classifieds model. In January 2025, the supplier commission on the platform was reduced to 0.01%. In 2025, the number of unique suppliers on OKOLO.Market reached 154, while the number of the platform’s customers, namely independent stores, has exceeded 18,000.
Currently, Okolo-branded stores operate in 39 Russian regions: Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Chelyabinsk, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kirov, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Ryazan, Samara, Smolensk, Tambov, Tver, Ulyanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda and Voronezh regions; the cities of Moscow and St Petersburg; Krasnodar, Perm, and Trans-Baikal territories; and the republics of Adygeya, Bashkortostan, Buryatia, Chuvashia, Karelia, Mari El, Mordovia, Tatarstan and Udmurtia.