21 Years of VARUS: From One Store to a National Network

02.10.2024

Ruslan Shostak, President of TERWIN

It turns out that September is the most productive and creative month of the year for me — 21 years ago, at this time, I launched VARUS.

I received the company registration certificate for "Omega" and plunged into the world of food retail. A few months later, at seven in the morning, I stood in front of the TERRA shopping center (Topolya) in Dnipro and admired the first new VARUS sign. I dreamed then of seeing such signs in many cities across Ukraine. And, as you can see, those dreams are coming true.

VARUS has come a long way from a single store in Dnipro to a national network — today, VARUS is among the top 5 food retailers in the country. It’s a modern, innovative network with its own identity and character.

In other words, as they say, it’s a network "with guts" — both literally and figuratively. We've overcome many obstacles, crises, the pandemic, stood firm during the war, but never stopped for a moment.

Today, VARUS is 109 supermarkets across Ukraine. More than 1,000,000 users visit VARUS online each month. There are 12 own brands with over 2,000 products. More than 230,000 people use the VARUS app each month. There are 1.7 million active loyalty cards. In 2023, VARUS turnover grew by more than 20%, reaching almost 18 billion UAH.

Every month, about 10 million customers shop in the network. VARUS employs nearly 10,000 people.

VARUS is one of the largest taxpayers among Ukrainian retailers. About 1 billion UAH was paid to the state just in the first half of 2024. In 2023, 1.1 billion UAH was transferred to the state budget.

VARUS is a business with a human face. All of Ukraine’s shared pains and aspirations are felt together with the country. Since the beginning of the war, hundreds of millions of hryvnias have been donated to the UNITED24 platform, the "Childhood Without War" project, cars for the military through the HeroCar project, and many other initiatives.

VARUS was the first in Ukraine to introduce an innovative DarkStore in Kyiv, allowing online orders to be processed six times faster.

VARUS is more than numbers and figures. It’s a team of incredible people who put their energy and love into this joint project every day.

For Ukrainians, VARUS is not me. It’s the girl or guy sitting at the cash register, welcoming our customers with a smile. It’s the variety of choices. It’s the smell of fresh bread, a set table for dinner, the boy who made a quick delivery.

For Ukraine, VARUS is a reliable partner that helps bring national ideas to life, pays taxes, creates jobs, and supplies food, no matter what happens.

For partners and suppliers, VARUS is an opportunity to meet millions of customers, to be recognized and chosen. It’s an opportunity to create Ukrainian consumer culture together and meet the highest standards.

When the war started in 2014, we lost 15% of our capacity; at the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022 — another 20%. Moreover, our food warehouse in Kyiv was completely bombed, which posed a threat of leaving the city without food, but thanks to the unification of competitors, this was overcome. Today, our stores continue to operate in the Donetsk region of Ukraine despite the threat, because we are always where our customers need us.

Happy birthday, VARUS!