The French retail hypermarket chain Auchan is planning to open four Auchan stores in Russia and one Raduga discount store, the Management Control Director of Auchan Russia Ludovic Holinier told the reporters during the Adam Smith Institute Russian Retail Trade Forum.

‘This is the minimum figure we are heading for, as we used to intend to set up at least six hypermarkets in Russia,’ Retail.ru quotes the executive as saying.

The Director explained that fewer stores would be opened as it is hard to find suitable land allotments: the economic recession of 2008-2009 caused most construction sites to stop going on, and only few developers’ projects were being launched at the time.

This year the company is planning to launch hypermarkets in Ufa, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, and Samara. This means by the end of the year Auchan will be running forty-eight hypermarkets in Russia.