Shops Of Famous World Chain Close In Minsk

It was not widely represented in Belarus, but now there is nothing left.

Shops of a large Dutch Spar chain have closed in Minsk. It was not widely represented in Belarus, but now there is nothing left, writes Blizko.by.

User X Bar_maley has posted photos of a grocery store at 40 Partyzanski Avenue, near the Partyzanskaya metro station. The first Spar shop in Minsk used to work here, but now the signboard reads "Almy". At that, the exterior design retains the trademark red colours. In the photo of the same user from April 1, the shop is still called Spar.

The website of sparbelarus.by has stopped working, there is no Belarus in the list of countries of Spar presence on the site of the international network. According to the trade register of Belarus, there are no Spar shops left in the country: they are either excluded from the register or transferred to the Almy chain.

Spar is a Dutch chain of shops with a 90-year history. Now there are almost 14 thousand shops in 48 countries all over the world. The name translates as "fir tree" - its stylised image is on the company's logo.

The first shop of the chain opened in Minsk at 40 Partyzanski Avenue in August 2017. The franchise was managed by the Unifood company, which also developed the Almy and Zakrama chains. Representatives of the company said they planned to open 60 shops in different cities of Belarus by 2020. But in the end, there were several times fewer shops in the whole country: three in Minsk and one each in Brest, Hrodna, Babruisk, Pinsk, Kobryn and Mazyr. Some of them were named Eurospar and Interspar. Over time, some of the shops closed down.