19.8.2011
SOK to open eighth Prisma in St Petersburg
SOK will open an eighth Prisma in St Petersburg on Friday, the 19th of August. The latest Prisma supermarket will be located in the new Ligov shopping mall, along the bustling Ligovskiy Prospekt. The building housing the shopping mall is also home to the Obvodniy Kanal metro station.
"The new Prisma is extremely well located in the immediate vicinity of the centre of St Petersburg. Around 200,000 cars and numerous pedestrians pass by every day, and the metro station is directly linked to the shopping mall and Prisma," says Vesa Punnonen, Managing Director of SOK Retail Int. Oy.
The shopping mall has an overall surface area of 35,700 square metres, of which Prisma will get slightly over 2,300. The mall also offers 324 car park spots.
"We will proceed in our Prisma projects according to our strategy. The next Prisma market will be opened in November–December. We are set to open four to six Prisma hypermarkets and supermarkets in St Petersburg this and next year, and in the long term we expect to open around 30 units," explains Punnonen.
The Prisma chain's competitive advantages in the contested St Petersburg market are a good price-to-quality ratio, reliability, a wide range of products, efficiency and convenient shopping.
"Operating in St Petersburg benefits S Group in many ways. The city provides us with valuable insight into working with some of the world's biggest retail chains, and the lessons learned can also be applied in Finland. What is more, we already have over 100,000 loyal customers in St Petersburg, who make active use of our services also when visiting Finland. After the initial investments, we will begin to see significant financial results here," Punnonen adds.