St Petersburg, 26 October 2026 – X5 has opened its 9,000th store under the Okolo brand. Over the past year, the number of retail outlets connected to X5’s direct franchising model has doubled.
The milestone franchise store is located in St Petersburg at 2 Dybenko Street. By joining the Okolo franchise, the store received new equipment, digital displays, and an Okolo Bistro coffee station. X5 funds the installation of coffee machines in its partners’ stores.
The new store spans 100 sq m and features 1,300 SKUs, including products from local suppliers, as well as a wide selection of frozen goods and ready-to-eat meals under the Prosto Super brand.
“Today, more than 700 Okolo-branded stores already operate in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, and we have seen a significant surge in interest in the franchise in recent months. This is driven by the expansion of our product range and substantially improved logistics following the integration of the Ecowine distribution business (Gorod 77 Group), which became part of X5 in July of this year. The opportunity to open an Okolo Bistro express café inside their stores has proved particularly popular among franchisees. X5 has already supplied the necessary equipment to 50 partner stores in the region.” – said Igor Pletnev, Managing Director, Okolo.
The Okolo franchise targets entrepreneurs with retail experience and operates in 60 regions of Russia, from Kaliningrad to Khabarovsk. Partners can purchase goods from X5 and from approximately 600 third-party sellers through the Okolo mobile app and the OKOLO.Market digital distribution platform. The Okolo app and the OKOLO.Market website serve more than 70,000 unique users every month.
The total product range available on the OKOLO.Market platform has grown sevenfold over the past year; today, franchisees have access to more than 200,000 items. In September of this year, OKOLO.Market introduced a new role, the entrepreneur sales representative, that enables individuals to register and offer their product promotion services to any seller using the platform.
According to INFOLine, Okolo was the leader among retail chains developing direct franchising by both number of stores and revenue in January–September 2026. The Okolo franchise also ranked first in Forbes Russia’s 2026 ranking of the country’s 30 Most Profitable Franchises in the “Investments up to RUB 2 Million” category.