The Nikora supermarket chain is continuing its development in Georgia, offering a delivery service for its products through the Glovo mobile application, and opening stores at Lukoil gas stations throughout the country.
“The Nikora supermarket chain always tries to indulge its customers with different interesting novelties. One of them is giving the opportunity to our customers to order products available at the Nikora supermarket chain via the food delivery company Glovo. Customers are free to order as many products as they want and can also pay with credit card as well as cash,” said David Urushadze, Director General of the Nikora supermarket chain.
“Another surprise that we have recently offered our customers is Nikora’s cooperation with the gas station network Lukoil in Georgia. We are delighted to offer customers convenience stores at Lukoil gas stations as well. The stores are in compliance with European standards and the assortment offered are optimized to cater to clients’ needs. Small-sized cafeterias are also being introduced at Lukoil gas stations. We plan to have interesting ongoing promotions to further engage Lukoils customers,” he added.
New stores have opened under the name Nikora Express at Lukoil gas stations which stand for customer-centric convenience stores with small-sized cafeterias. Urushadze said that the Nikora supermarket chain aims to expand and cover all Lukoil gas stations in the nearest future.
One of the latest Nikora supermarkets to have been opened was in the town of Zugdidi in Georgia. The policy of the supermarket chain’s management is to open new stores in such places where there is high demand. Nikora even launched a survey asking its customers where they would like to have a new supermarket of Nikora’s. Urushadze said that as the Nikora supermarket chain is already well developed in the capital city Tbilisi the survey showed that now demand is high in the regions of Georgia.
“We choose new locations following the demand from our customers as we want to make shopping at Nikora supermarkets as comfortable as possible for them,” Urushadze said.
Currently, Nikora is represented on the Georgian market by having the largest chain of over 250 of its own supermarkets, where customers can find over 8,000 sorts of products currently in circulation. The highest quality, range of diversity, freedom of choice, maximal comfort and affordable prices are considered the main advantage of Nikora supermarkets.
“We are constantly renewing the assortment available in our network. We try to offer customers a variety of products that are exclusively available at our supermarkets,” Urushadze said.
Urushadze named some of the products that are exclusively sold at Nikora. These products include: Camforio (Spanish company producing different kinds of processed meat products); Mlekpol (Poland’s largest dairy manufacturer); Pons (Spanish company producing olive oil); Doux (French food processing company in the industrial poultry production business); Emborg (Danish company producing milk products); Vodniy Mir (Ukrainian company producing fish, seafood).
The first supermarket branch of Nikora was established back in 2000. Ever since, the chain has expanded and continued to cover Georgia’s territory with its branches.
“Nikora is working hard to develop its service on a daily basis. Our main goal has always been to offer qualified service from our consultants. We are fully responsible for all the products purchased at our stores; that they are of a high quality and meet their shelf life. Besides the variety of products, we have the ambition to be associated with high quality service. We work hard to keep this niche,” said Urushadze.
Q. You have introduced a social card being offered by Nikora, which enables customers to purchase up to 300 of the most in-demand products at the best price within the Nikora supermarket chain. What are the other benefits of the card?
A. We launched this campaign together with Libery Bank. Any owner of Liberty Bank’s social card is able to use a special discount at Nikora supermarkets on more than 300 different products. More importantly, customers paying with Liberty Bank’s social cards are allowed to pay special prices at Nikora’s supermarket network all over the country.
Social cardholders are people receiving: state pensions, social packages, and social assistance.
Nikora has always been a socially active company. With Liberty Bank we have the opportunity to give exclusive offers to Liberty Social Card holders, including pensioners and social aid receivers. We have listed the most required and interesting products, which are sold at significantly lower prices for social card holders.
Besides that, we also offer an additional campaign to social card holders which is held every Thursday where social card holders can get additional discounts.
Q. Georgia has banned the use, import and production of all plastic bags, meaning that business operators are now obliged to sell only biodegradable bags. But Nikora was the first supermarket to start replacing plastic bags with biodegradable ones back in 2015. How successfully did Nikora launch this initiative? Could you please share your experience for other trading networks operating in Georgia?
A. Yes, Nikora was the first of the Georgian supermarkets to fully replace its plastic bags with biodegradable ones.
We understand that plastic pollution is an urgent issue globally, including in Georgia. We also managed to explain this to our customers who positively received this innovative decision from our supermarket chain.
To note, in the same year, 2015, we also signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the National Botanical Garden of Georgia. As per the Memorandum, the money received by selling biodegradable bags was completely spent on bio-diversity research of the garden.
Q. Congratulations on winning a Golden Brand award. In your opinion, what led Nikora to this success?
A. The Golden Brand award has become a tradition for the Nikora supermarket chain. Nikora has become the No1 supermarket chain in Georgia once again and we are very proud of this title and award.
We would like to thank the experts and customers as well who were involved in the survey conducted by Global Idea and The FINANCIAL.
“Because it is Georgian and is a brand that is trustworthy” – this is the main fact that makes Nikora such a distinguished brand on the market.
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