Okey-Dokey Grocery, the Russian-backed retail venture that envisioned opening as many as 400 small discount grocery stores around Florida, has closed or will close all of its stores, local sources told SN.
In addition to the closures of 11 stores that were operating as of last week, the chain will back out of “40 or 50” deals to open new stores, according to a real estate source who was informed of the retailer’s plans in an email from the company last week. The company had as many as 13 stores operating in May. Okey-Dokey is looking now for businesses to sublease its facilities, the source said.
Dave Colonna, head of real estate for Okey-Dokey parent AgroTrade America, said “no comment” when asked about the closures by SN. The company was not available for additional comment Thursday.
Agro-Trade was founded in 2011 by the founders of Russia’s X5 Retail Group, including the discount chain Pyaterochka and the Karusel chain of hypermarkets. The company said it was backed by a $500 million investment from private Dutch investors and envisioned building a chain of 400 stores and $1 billion in sales within four years.
Its first stores opened less than a year ago around the Miami area, but local sources said the stores had a difficult time introducing its concept to the market.
“I think they came out too quickly and looked a little disorganized,” one source said. “To me it looked like they didn’t have a set plan to penetrate the market.”
