VILNIUS - IKI, Lithuania's second-biggest supermarket chain, and Casino Group, a leading global retailer, have agreed to co-develop a discount chain called Leader Price in the Baltic countries.
"With the development of the discount chain Leader Price, we will aim to secure the lowest possible prices in the Baltic countries. We are inspired by the success of Leader Price format stores and global expertise of Casino Group," Aidas Mackevicius, CEO of Palink, which owns IKI, said.
Talks with Casino Group should be wrapped up in the near future, and the first stores should be opened in May, Mackevicius said. He added that efforts to develop the Leader Price chain would cover all three Baltic countries.
IKI intends to open up to 20 new store outlets in Lithuania and Latvia this year.
IKI and Leader Price have been cooperating with success since 2003.
Casino Group, which was established in France in 1898, is the leader of retail trade in its home country.
The chain operates over 9,000 retail outlets in 16 countries.
The group, which employs a workforce of 213,000, posted sales of 36.3 billion euros in 2004.
According to preliminary estimations, Palink's sales reached 1.2 billion litas (345 million euros) last year, a rise of 6.3 percent year-on-year.
The IKI chain currently covers 136 trade outlets and employs some 5,300 people. The company is controlled by Baltisches Haus, which is owned by the Ortiz brothers from Belgium. The list of Palink shareholders also shows Citigroup Venture Capital International, a U.S. Citigroup company.
