Grocery retail is the main sales channel for dairy, so shifts in the store rankings matter directly to dairy producers. In H1 2026, regional players opened the most new stores while the market leaders held steady expansion, the Retail Association of Ukraine (RAU) reports.
RAU’s latest RAU Analytics study tracked store openings by nearly thirty leading Ukrainian grocery retailers among its members over the first six months of 2026, along with where they focused regionally.
The biggest chains
ATB remains the largest food retailer, with 1,337 stores at the end of June 2026 after adding 24 and closing just one in H1 — roughly four net openings a month, matching last year’s pace. Second is Klever Stors (Lutsk) with its Simi chain, the fastest-growing player: +71 stores (three closed) to reach 511, having overtaken Fozzy Group’s Fora, with the gap now near 100 stores and potentially set to widen.
Fora sits third on 415 (+23, two closed) and in June took over about 180 Badioryi convenience stores after Fozzy Group’s Benefit fund gained control of Nedles, the Badioryi operator — part of Fora’s push into neighbourhood retail. Sister chain Silpo edged down by one (three opened, four closed), one closure being a Kyiv store destroyed by a missile strike in May. Together Fora and Silpo give Fozzy Group 723 outlets, the No. 2 national player behind ATB.
Also in the top 10: MHP agroholding’s Myasomarket meat-store chain (291), Kyiv’s KOLO convenience chain (252) — which Ukraine’s antimonopoly regulator cleared for takeover by Varus operator Omega in July, potentially lifting the combined network to 372 — Lviv’s Rukavychka (238, +19, none closed), Kropyvnytskyi’s Faino Market (223), Fozzy’s Thrash! (205) and Kyiv’s Box express market (150).
The fastest-growing chains
By opening pace the order shifts. Simi led with 71 new stores, a net +15% (versus +18% a year earlier), followed by ATB (+23 net) and Fora (+21 net). Rukavychka added 19 with no closures, and Thrash! opened 16; launched in 2016 as a hard discounter, it has since repositioned as a “Super Market” blending domestic brands and imported delicacies.
Mi Market, run by Lithuania’s Novus in the Kyiv region, opened 15 with no closures. The Shchaslyve Kurcha meat chain (since 2021) is also expanding fast, now at 71 stores across six regions, with its own production sites and poultry feed. Rounding out the most dynamic RAU members: Box express market (+8, none closed), EKO Market (+8) and Faino Market (+6).
