Lenta : Pirkka-branded goods return to the North-West of Russia with Lenta

Pirkka-branded goods return to the North-West of Russia with Lenta

St. Petersburg, Russia; 23 November 2017 - Lenta (LSE, MOEX: LNTA), one of the largest retail chains in Russia, announces the start of sales of Pirkka branded products in Lenta stores across St. Petersburg, Petrozavodsk, and Murmansk.

Pirkka is awell-known private label by the Finnish conglomerate Kesko. Lenta purchased 11 hypermarkets of Kesko in Saint-Petersburg previously operated under the K-Ruoka brand at the end of 2016. Today, the two companies announce the launch of a new partnership: Lenta will become the exclusive seller of high-quality products under the Pirkka brand in Russia.

Initially, Lenta hypermarkets and supermarkets will offer a range of 80 SKUs in the categories of dry food, confectionery, and household chemicals. These products, already known and loved by the residents of Russia's "Northern capital", are manufactured to high Finnish quality standards by leading European enterprises. For now, the products will be available in Lenta's stores in St. Petersburg, Murmansk, and Petrozavodskonly, where the Company operates 38 hypermarkets and 18 supermarkets.

Herman Tinga, Lenta's Commercial Director, said:

"We are pleased to announce the return of the Pirkka brand to St. Petersburg. These are high-quality products from Finland that have already earned their reputation as the 'Finnish quality benchmark'. We know that these products are widely popular in St. Petersburg, and we are happy to provide our customers with their preferred ranges at competitive prices. This year, we will increase number of private label SKUs by approx. 30%, including through beefing up our ranges of exclusive food products that are not to be found in other retail chains. We expect this will make our stores even more attractive to our customers."

About Lenta

Lenta is the largest hypermarket chain in Russia and the country's fourth largest retail chain. The Company was founded in 1993 in St. Petersburg. Lenta operates 217 hypermarkets in 79 cities across Russia and 72 supermarkets in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and the Central region with a total of approximately 1,295,335sq.m of selling space. The average Lenta hypermarket store has selling space of approximately 5,700 sq.m. The average Lenta supermarket store has selling space of approximately 900 sq.m. The Company operates seven owned distribution centres.

The Company's price-led hypermarket formats are differentiated in terms of their promotion and pricing strategies as well as their local product assortment. The Company employed approximately 40,400 people as of 30 June 2017[1].

The Company's management team combines a mix of local knowledge and international expertise coupled with extensive operational experience in Russia. Lenta's largest shareholders include TPG Capital and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, both of which are committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance. Lenta is listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the Moscow Exchange and trades under the ticker: 'LNTA'.

A brief video summary on Lenta's business and its Big Data initiative can be seen here.

For further information please visit www.lentainvestor.com, or contact:

Lenta 
?el:+7 (812) 336 39 97 
E-mail: pr@lenta.com

NW Advisors

Anton Karpov & Victoria Afonina 
?el:+7 495 795 06 23 
E-mail: lenta@nwadvisors.com

[1]FTE (full-time equivalent). Average FTE for 1H 2017 was 40,197 employees