Mere, the “Russian Lidl”, will open three stores in France in October – LCI

After Germany, Spain, Romania, Poland and Lithuania, the Russian-born hard-discounter Mere will open three stores in eastern France next October, he announced on his website, spotted on Tuesday by the LSA distribution specialist and confirming information from The Express.

The company indicates that it wants “to open stores in all the big cities of France” and “establish links with suppliers all over Europe”. In the immediate future, it is the “Grand Est region [qui] is chosen to start the development of the network “ in France, with stores in Pont-Sainte-Marie, a town in the Aube known for its factory outlets (Marques City), Sainte-Marguerite, in the Vosges, and Thionville, in Moselle.

Mere is the name used abroad by the Svetofor (traffic light in Russian) group, which started in 2009 in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. It is a group controlled in majority by the Schneider family who founded it, and which today claims 1,500 stores in Russia.

According to the Russian analysis agency Infoline, which specializes in particular in distribution, Svetofor was in 2020 one of the two distribution chains with the highest growth in turnover (+ 40% to 189 billion rubles). An increase which can be explained by the crisis caused by the pandemic, but which is more generally part of the longer-term decline in the incomes of Russian consumers.

Claiming “store prices 10 to 20% lower than the market average”, the company began to develop outside Russia in 2015, and is now present, in addition to the European countries already mentioned, in China, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus. She plans a “active development in the countries of the European Union and in Asia”.

In addition to its prices, the chain is distinguished by minimal service and a spartan presentation, with basic products offered on pallets and prices taped to a yellow sheet. In addition, Mere relies on a particular model, paying suppliers only for the goods sold, sending them back those that are not.