Orel, 8 December 2025 – X5 (“X5”, MOEX: X5), a leading Russian food retailer, announces the opening of the 4,000th store under its Okolo franchise, located in the village of Uspenskoye, Livensky District, Orel Region. The milestone store – which had been closed for seven years – has now reopened under a strategic partnership between X5 and the non-profit Central Union of Consumer Societies of the Russian Federation (Centrosoyuz). As part of the collaboration, X5 provided refrigeration equipment, checkouts, a coffee machine and other fixtures. Spanning 105 sq m, the store offers more than 2,000 SKUs, curated using the Smart Assortment recommendation model on the Okolo.Market platform.
“The Okolo project fosters truly beneficial partnerships between a major retailer and independent store owners. The franchise is expanding rapidly nationwide and has proven particularly popular within the consumer cooperation system. To date, 925 cooperative stores in 18 regions of Russia have joined, gaining access to a modern digital platform, competitively priced goods with deferred payment options, investment in store equipment, and actionable recommendations to optimise assortment and enhance profitability,” said Igor Pletnev, Managing Director of Okolo.
The Okolo franchise is centred on partnerships with experienced entrepreneurs who already operate retail businesses. Currently, Okolo-branded stores operate in 48 Russian regions: Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kirov, Kurgan, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan, Samara, Saratov, Sverdlovsk, Smolensk, Tambov, Tver, Tula, Ulyanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, and Yaroslavl 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.