The first Mere, according to media reports, is due to open its doors soon, although the exact date remains unclear.

Svetofor, the company behind the Mere and My Price stores operating in Europe, which says on its website that it has over 3,000 stores globally, intends to open 20 stores in quick succession in Budapest and a total of 200 in Hungary as part of a new expansion programme..

No regulations prevent Russian companies not subject to sanctions from owning and running businesses in the EU. However, Svetofor had to put its plans for European hegemony on ice after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022..

Stores were closed in mid 2022 as shoppers in Poland, Romania, and the UK, owing to shoppers associating the brand with the invasion. .

However, the company, based in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, continued to operate stores in the Baltic states, Greece and Germany, as well as Belgium, where it relaunched its Mere shops as “My Price” earlier this year. The company has also sweetened relations with officials in regions it is still operating in the EU who may have had objections to Mere’s origins by employing Ukrainian managers and staff, according to reports..

The company’s aggressive growth strategy focuses on keen pricing, which undercuts, it claims, other discount stores “by as much as 20%”. It does so by doing away with warehouses, having suppliers deliver directly to stores, where food is sold from crates, thereby saving on staffing and other costs according to the grocer.uk retail website. .

The stores only pay suppliers for goods sold, meaning that if deliveries are wasted, unsold or stolen Svetofor takes no responsibility..

Mere’s choice of Hungary as a place for expansion comes at a time when the Hungarian government’s strict retail regulations aimed at loosening the grip of the large foreign chains has been questioned in Brussels. .

A windfall tax of 4.1% has been charged on profits. Spar, the Austrian-founded company which owns 600 shops in Hungary, has complained of having to pay an additional €76 million in tax in 2023.