March 11 (SeeNews) - Maxima Bulgaria, a unit of Lithuanian discount retailer Maxima Grupe, said on Friday that it intends to open up to 30 new stores under the T-Market brand this year.
The war in Ukraine, however, may affect this plan, Petar Pavlov, CEO of Maxima Bulgaria said in a statement published on its website.
Maxima Bulgaria usually invests 1 million levs ($561,600/511,300 euro) in the opening of every new store, Pavlov said.
Depending on the size of the stores, the company will open 20 new job on average in each of the new locations, he added.
Half of the new stores will be located on the Black Sea coast and in big regional cities. The rest will be opened in smaller municipalities with population of about 15,000 people.
Maxima Bulgaria also intends to invest 6 million euro ($6.6 million) in purchasing land for its stores.
Earlier this month, the company opened its 100th T-Market store in the town of Kubrat, in northeastern Bulgaria. About 1 million levs were invested in the store, which will initially employ 20 people, Pavlov also said.
Maxima Grupe entered the Bulgarian market in 2005.