Dutch retail chain is going to work in Kazakhstan

SPAR, a retailer from the Netherlands, has entered Kazakhstan’s market. The company is going to work in conjunction with Skif Trade, which owns a local chain of supermarkets called Small.

According to the information published on its website, SPAR gave a license to the Kazakhstani partner on January 1, 2022. Now the Dutch company is working on its retail and distribution network in the country.

«We are expecting that the first SPAR supermarkets will be opened in Kazakhstan this year,» the company said.

On the other hand, the Kazakhstani side has kept silent. Demid Samoshkin, head of sales in Small, refused to comment. Andrey Dorovskikh, head of SKIF TRADE didn’t respond to the Kursiv edition.

However, on July 27, a Twitter user published a photo where Small informs its clients about temporarily closing due to rebranding into SPAR.

Small is a retail chain in Kazakhstan established in 1999. As the company reported, about four million people visit the chain’s shops every month. In total, Small runs more than 100 supermarkets, has more than 1,200 suppliers and hires 8,000 employees. In 2021, the company paid $12.2 million in taxes, and it paid $8.1 million in taxes this year so far, according to pk.uchet.kz.

SPAR is a Dutch retailer with about 410,000 employees. The company runs more than 13,500 supermarkets in 48 countries including Russia.