Former Ahold exec plans Russian retail chain

By Maria Plis

MOSCOW, April 18 (Reuters) - A new Russian discount retail chain headed by a former executive of Dutch supermarket group Royal Ahold NV (AHLN.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) will open its first store in July and plans to expand further, the official heading the project said on Friday.

Luc de Jong, who worked at Ahold for 20 years, told Reuters the new chain was being managed by several former top managers at Ahold and by Russian businessmen Sergei Vereshchagin and Oleg Trykin, the main shareholders in the Smart Value chain.

"We will open the first shop in July 2008 and then we will build an extensive network across all of Russia," said de Jong, who now works as general director of Smart Value. He said the chain would resemble the C1000 discount chain in the Netherlands, operated by Ahold subsidiary Schuitema (SUTN.AS: Quote, Profile, Research), though it would have a different name.

De Jong said Ahold would help the venture in a technical and consultancy capacity but would not take an equity stake in Smart Value. He did not rule out, however, that the two firms might eventually unite.

Neither Vereshchagin nor Trykin were available for comment. In March, the two cut their stake in another retail chain that they founded, Azbuka Vkusa (The ABC of Taste), to 20 percent from 50 percent.

They sold the stake to the former owners of Expobank for a sum estimated by analysts to be around $80 million. At the time, they said they would invest the proceeds in new projects.

Ahold is the seventh-biggest supermarket group in the world by sales. (Writing by Robin Paxton; Editing by David Holmes)