Briefs

Mango in Galaxy In February the Mango fashion chain opened its first shop in Szczecin Galaxy Centrum, developed by Echo Investment. The outlet has 300 sqm. The company plans to open more outlets in Poland, for example in Wrocław. Mango runs 706 shops in 72 countries. Mango has been operating shops in Poland since 2000. VP Market in Poland VP Market, a Lithuanian food stores operator, plans to open its shops in Poland and Ukraine as well as to continue its expansion in the Baltic countries. According to the company's management the first Polish and Ukrainian stores should be opened by the end of this year. VP Market operates Minima chains (200-800 sqm), Media (800-2,000 sqm), Maxima (over 2,000 sqm) and Hyper Maxima and Maxima Baze (10,000 sqm and more). There are 185 VP Market stores in Lithuania, 80 in Latvia and 1 in Estonia. The company reported total sales of EUR 1.04 bln for 2003 a17.9 percent rise over the previous year.