The UTG company, with 23 years of experience in leasing retail space and supporting the interests of tenants, provides retailers with a full range of work for their development. To do this, UTG analysts are constantly working on studying the market situation. The studies include monitoring the activities of retail chains, competitors and developers, reflect the general situation on the market, as well as changes in consumer behavior. And, for a comprehensive view of the situation, the company’s experts note the development strategies of the most successful and large market operators. Among such examples is the development of the Epicenter group of companies, which is significantly expanding its presence in retail trade, introducing three different formats – Epicenter Food, Epicenter Home and Epicenter Food&Home, which operate outside the usual DIY hypermarkets.

Starting in the summer of 2025, Epicenter began opening Epicenter stores in the new Food format in Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv and a number of regions, as well as Epicenter in the Home format in Horishni Plavny. And already in December of this year, one of the largest Epicenter stores in Ukraine with an area of ​​3,800 sq. m opened in the Lviv Great shopping center, which combined the grocery sector, household goods and a large food court in a single multi-format space. According to the director of UTG company, Evgenia Loktionova, the retailer’s expansion into the new Food and Food&Home formats was prompted by market and strategic factors. Among them are the availability of a wide range of products, the growth of demand for stores close to home and business diversification. “The uniqueness and difference of these formats from existing players on the market lies in several points at once. First, in their flexibility in formats. Second, in the short logistics arm, which makes delivery cheaper. And finally, in a large assortment range, which makes it possible to analyze the demand for the surrounding audience and open a relevant format,” the head emphasized.

At the same time, according to Evgenia Loktionova, Epicenter Food and Epicenter Food&Home have optimal formats from 100 to 1500 sq. m, which allows them to be placed in shopping centers, or street formats in densely populated areas in cities. Depending on the format, such stores are advisable to open in Retail Park, street-retail, or in the form of stores near the house. Also, among the advantages of the new format of Epicenter stores is the fact that the number of population or the region of location does not matter for them. In any city, such a format should be interesting to the consumer, because it allows you to make purchases quickly and conveniently. Therefore, as the director of UTG notes, the potential scale of development of such stores can be more than 200 points within Ukraine, which will give brand recognition.

Based on this, Evgeniya Loktionova is confident in the prospects of the new format of Epicenter stores and the viability of the Food and Food&Home formats in the current market conditions. “After all, their target audience is buyers who are looking for both food and household goods, who appreciate the convenience of a single place for shopping. These can be residents of nearby areas and people looking for convenience. The launch of such formats allows Epicenter customers to save time by making all the necessary purchases in one place,” she emphasizes.

However, UTG experts also note key risks or barriers for the retailer in developing the FMCG and home retail segments in a new format. After all, entering new markets for food retail and household goods in the format of small stores is associated with high competition in the Food segment, while for the Home format it is important to choose the right assortment of goods that will be interesting to visitors.