The Ukrainian grocery retail market is going through an interesting period. While giants such as ATB, Fozzy, and Varus are building classic corporate empires, regional players like "Blyzhenko" and "Tavria V" are fighting a fierce battle for leadership while maintaining a family management structure. This confrontation between two business models is a key theme in Ukrainian food retail.
The Dnipro Trio and Family Strategies
An interesting fact: the top three grocery retailers in the country — ATB, Fozzy, and Varus — hail from Dnipro. However, despite their scale, they do not monopolize the market. Family retail demonstrates its advantages, particularly in strategic planning. The owners of such networks think in terms of generations, not immediate quarterly reports.
A striking example of the evolution of family business is Berta Group, which owns the "Blyzhenko" chain and 40% of the "Torba" discounters. Alexander Berezhansky, General Director of Berta Group, admitted that he is considering the possibility of transitioning from purely family management to the creation of a supervisory board. The goal is ambitious: to ensure the company works for future generations of the family.
Pros and Cons of Models
According to Mikhail Kolesnyk, a professor at the Kyiv School of Economics, family companies possess unique advantages. They are capable of making decisions more quickly, controlling operational processes more strictly, and using financial leverage more cautiously. It is precisely these qualities that help them survive liquidity crises more easily.
At the same time, the corporate model shows its effectiveness at the stage of large-scale expansion. Access to cheap financing and the presence of professional teams allow such networks to grow faster, although this is often accompanied by bureaucratization and the need to coordinate the interests of numerous shareholders.
Quality is More Important Than Form
Organized grocery retail in Ukraine is conventionally divided into two clusters: large corporate structures and companies that grew out of regional family businesses. So far, neither of these models is displacing the other from the market. Experts conclude: the key factor of success is not the form of ownership, but the quality of capital management and the ability to react quickly to market changes.
