Western Ukraine becomes the main battleground for grocery chains

According to State Statistics Service data for January–May 2026, Ukraine’s western regions are showing faster retail turnover growth than the capital: Kyiv Oblast posted a 19.4% increase, while Kyiv itself recorded 13.7%.

This is reported by RBC-Ukraine in a piece titled “The great supermarket redistribution: who is buying up regional chains in Ukraine.”

Full-scale war has reshaped the map of consumer demand: along with the population and businesses, money and solvent shoppers have moved to the west of the country. Experts say that explaining this through internally displaced persons only partially captures what is happening: social payments to displaced people are modest — the basic income is 4,500 hryvnias, with housing allowances of 2,000–3,000 hryvnias per month.

“The region’s tourist appeal plays a significantly larger role. Businesses are relocating, offices are opening, and more affluent consumers are visiting,” notes Natalia Kolesnychenko, senior economist at the Centre for Economic Strategy.

Igor Huglia, director of GT Partners Ukraine, calls the west “the undisputed leader in retailers’ territorial expansion.” Anna Anisimova, commercial director of GDS, considers Novus the most illustrative case: when the Arsen supermarkets and other assets of the Evrotek group (more than 60 outlets) closed in May 2026, Lithuanian company BT Invest snapped up two Lviv locations and one in Ivano-Frankivsk, thus making the chain’s first entry into Lviv with virtually no new construction.

At the same time, Tavria V — one of the largest chains in the south, owned by Mykhailo and Borys Muzalyev and Vyacheslav Pysmeniuk — is expanding in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. On June 5, 2026, the chain opened a store in Dolyna. For 2025, its revenue reached 15.3 billion hryvnias, up 12% from the previous figure.

Lviv, Volyn, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts are now simultaneously contested by local chains Symy, Blyzenko, and Tano alongside national players — ATB, Fora, Novus, and Dyvotsin. Market participants estimate that the region has never seen such a density of competition.

“Regional chains of 10–50 stores are an ideal acquisition target: ready-made infrastructure, an established customer base, and often owned or long-term premises,” says Anisimova.

At the same time, regional operators cannot keep up with national players in logistics, IT, and operational efficiency. In Anisimova’s view, relatively strong regional operators still remain in western Ukraine for now, but the pressure on them will become critical once the national chains fully consolidate their position in the region.