What is "lenta"

Lenta can refer to:

• Lenta (retail), a Russian hypermarket chain
• Lenta, Piedmont, a municipality in Italy
• Lenta.ru, a Russian online newspaper
• Lenta (лента), ribbon or tape in the Russian language
  • Especially the ribbon of Saint George
• a barley cultivar

Lenta is one of the largest retail chains in Russia and the country's second largest hypermarket chain. The company was founded in 1993 in St. Petersburg. Founded by Oleg Zherebtsov, Lenta opened its first “Cash & Carry” store in St. Petersburg, Russia, in October 1993. Lenta then registered its trademark in 1994. And, by 1999, it opened its first big-box hypermarket format and has expanded ever since. Now Lenta operates 122 hypermarkets in 63 cities across Russia and 27 supermarkets in the Moscow region with a total of approximately 787,807 sq.m. of selling space. The average Lenta hypermarket store has selling space of 6,200 sq m. The company operates five distribution centres for hypermarkets. The company's stores base themselves on price-led hypermarkets and supermarket scheme. Lenta employs around 35,100 people.

Lenta’s largest shareholders include TPG Capital, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and VTB Capital. Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) of Lenta Ltd. are listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the Moscow Exchange.

The parent company of the chain – Lenta LLC – 100% belongs to Lenta LTD, that registered in British Virgin Islands. 41,3 % of shares belong to investment - TPG Capital and «VTB Capital» (35,5 % and 5,8 % respectively), 15,3% — belongs to EBRD, minor shareholders share the rest. CEO of the chain – Jan Dunning.