Fix Price opens 38 stores in Belarus in nine months

Fix Price opened 38 stores in Belarus between January and September 2026, compared with 25 in the same period last year. Two stores also closed. Belarus became the chain’s largest market outside Russia by store count, with 411 outlets at the end of September. For those in the franchise sector, these results primarily indicate a change in the scale of the international brand’s presence.

More openings, with closures unchanged

Retail.ru reported Fix Price Group PLC’s operating results for the first nine months of the year in an article published on 2 November 2026. According to those figures, the number of openings in Belarus rose by 13 compared with January–September 2025. Meanwhile, company-owned store closures remained unchanged at two, the same as a year earlier.

This puts the net increase at 36 stores, compared with 23 a year earlier. This figure is calculated from the published data on company-owned store openings and closures; it is not a separate measure of growth in the Belarusian franchise network.

That distinction matters. The operating figures show that the brand’s expansion accelerated, but they do not establish that all the new stores were opened by independent partners. The total number of stores trading under the brand and the number of franchised outlets are different measures and should not be treated as interchangeable when assessing an opportunity for a prospective franchisee.

Store openings alone do not reveal financial performance either. They show changes in geographical reach and the scale of the brand’s presence, but cannot be used to calculate average revenue, profit or the investment payback period for an individual store.

Belarus overtakes Kazakhstan by store count

At the end of September, Fix Price had 411 stores in Belarus and 408 in Kazakhstan. These remained the brand’s largest markets outside Russia. Although the gap was just three stores, opening and closure trends differed considerably.

In Kazakhstan, 36 stores opened during the nine-month period, compared with 54 a year earlier. At the same time, 18 company-owned stores closed, up from 11 in the corresponding period of 2025. In Belarus, by contrast, openings increased while closures remained unchanged.

A further ten stores opened in Serbia. Across all markets outside Russia, Fix Price opened 84 outlets during the reporting period, up 6.3% year on year. Belarus accounted for 38 of those 84 openings, or around 45%. This share is calculated from the published figures and relates specifically to openings, not to the entire international network.

The comparison shows why the Belarusian results should be considered separately from the company’s overall international performance. An increase in openings in one market can coincide with a slowdown in another. Entrepreneurs assessing the brand need to consider not only aggregate figures, but also data for the country in which they intend to operate.

Uneven growth across the international network

Including franchised outlets, Fix Price’s network outside Russia grew by 59 stores over the first three quarters, reaching 925 outlets. Meanwhile, the net increase in company-owned stores outside Russia was 64, compared with 66 a year earlier. These measures have different scopes: one includes franchised outlets, while the other covers only the company’s own stores.

Alongside its expansion in Belarus, the brand withdrew entirely from Mongolia. At the start of 2026, three stores were trading under the Fix Price name there; by the end of September, all three were listed as no longer operating. This is a market-specific outcome and should not automatically be taken as an indication of conditions in Belarus.

In total, the company closed 20 company-owned stores outside Russia over the nine months, compared with 13 a year earlier. Of these closures, 18 were in Kazakhstan and two in Belarus. At the end of the reporting period, Fix Price had 8,219 outlets across ten countries, including 7,294 stores in Russia.

For the franchise sector, this picture is a reminder that an international brand’s scale does not imply uniform performance across all countries. Partnership opportunities are better assessed through local results, operating conditions and the specifics of an individual outlet, rather than total store numbers alone.

What prospective franchisees should consider

The key Belarusian result for the reporting period was an increase in openings with no change in the number of closures. However, the published figures neither establish franchise profitability nor describe the economics of an individual franchisee’s business.

When discussing a potential partnership, prospective franchisees should ask the franchisor for information that distinguishes the development of company-owned retail operations from the franchise model:

• how many stores in Belarus operate under franchise agreements, and how that number has changed;
• how stores with comparable locations and floor areas perform;
• what costs the franchisee bears when opening and operating a store;
• how responsibilities for supplies and maintaining the product range are divided.

These are questions to ask when evaluating the offer, not terms that can be inferred from opening statistics. The practical takeaway: 38 new stores confirm that Fix Price’s expansion in Belarus has accelerated, but any decision to buy a franchise should rest on a separate financial assessment of the proposed store and a review of the contract.