New EU sanctions package includes owners of Mere chain, freezing their assets, closing stores

“The Ministry of Economy and Innovation announced on Friday that the EU has added the owners of the Svetofor Group retail chain, which also owns the Mere stores operating in Lithuania, to the list of sanctioned persons.

 

As of Thursday, all of these individuals’ money and assets in the EU must be frozen, and they are prohibited from providing funds or other economic resources.

 

Sergey Šnaider, who owns the Svetofor retail chain, has been included in the sanctions list because he materially or financially supports actions that violate or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, based on data from the Latvian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the BNS news agency reports.

 

The FIU announces that the sanctions apply to the managers of Mere – the Latvian company Latprodukti and the Latvian branch of the Lithuanian company Valientė. The companies must immediately cease operations in compliance with EU sanctions restrictions.

 

According to her, S. Šnaider indirectly owns more than 50% of the shares of Latprodukti and Valiente in Latvia.

 

Russian businessman S. Šnaider, who is included in the 21st EU sanctions list, owns the retail chain Mere, which also operates in Lithuania.

 

Rosina Tutarisheva, the head of UAB Valientė, which manages the Mere stores, could not be contacted by Verslo žiniomas on Friday. We hope to update the publication after receiving a comment.

Stores are closing

 

The portal “15min” announces that stores are closing in Lithuania after this news. According to the portal’s sources, the news of the closure was completely unexpected even for the Mere employees – the lights were suddenly turned off and they were told to close the stores and vacate the building within 15 minutes.

 

According to the portal "What's happening in Kaunas", visitors to the "Mere" store in Kaunas were asked to leave the store, and it was reported that the store would no longer be open due to technical difficulties.

 

VŽ wrote that at the end of last year, several Russian citizens transferred their ownership to the Spanish company "Vigalight S.A.", which is developing the same business in Barcelona, ​​and among the managers of this company there are other, but also Russian, surnames.

 

Edvinas Grikšas, Minister of Economy and Innovation, said in October last year that despite the change of owners, "Mere" may be included in the list of sanctioned companies in the near future.

Assets frozen

 

The Ministry of Economy and Innovation informed that from July 23, all funds and economic resources belonging to the owners of "Svetofor Group" and owned, managed or controlled by them in the EU are frozen. Also, these individuals are not allowed to use any funds or economic resources, either directly or indirectly, for their benefit.

 

According to the ministry, in October last year, E. Grikšas called for the application of strict sanctions on Russian and Belarusian businesses, so that these countries' economic ties with Europe should be limited, and there should be no possibility of circumventing the sanctions.

 

"The ministry takes the position that companies that directly or indirectly contribute to the financing of the Russian regime cannot operate in Lithuania. Therefore, it is important that decisions on sanctions against specific individuals supporting Russia are primarily applied at the European Union level. The decision reached regarding the owners of Mere is an important step in reducing any direct or indirect benefit to Russia," the Minister of Economy and Innovation said in a press release.

LVK Vice President: Aiming to protect assets

 

After the EU imposed sanctions on the owners of the Russian Svetofor Group, a retail chain group that operates Mere stores in Lithuania, which were hastily closed on Friday, Marius Dubnikovas, Vice President of the Lithuanian Business Confederation (LVK), says that this is probably aimed at protecting assets so that they can be sold and withdrawn from Lithuania.

 

According to him, Mere accounts for just 1% of the country's market.

 

“It seems that they are trying to protect the assets that are there, stop the activities and most likely have as much time as possible to regroup, so that those assets can be sold and thus leave Lithuania,” M. Dubnikovas told LRT radio on Friday; BNS quoted him as saying.

 

“Equipment and goods, perhaps, to sell to some intermediate buyer, perhaps to competitors. Perhaps, there are various options here,” the economist added.

 

According to him, employees could have been ordered to close the stores within 15 minutes in order to stop payment operations: “This is most likely a reaction to some parts of the sanctions package, so that there are as few transactions as possible.”

 

According to M. Dubnikovas, “Mere” is not a significant chain in the Lithuanian market: “One percent of the market, in any system, one percent, whether it is there or not, probably does not matter much.”

 

According to the economist, the chain’s turnover per year amounts to about 70 million. EUR, while the Lithuanian retail food market at that time amounted to just over EUR 7 billion.

 

In turn, Kristupas Vaitiekūnas, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that he believed that the "Mere" case was the largest in the new EU sanctions package.

Business indicators

 

The turnover of Latprodukti, registered in 2020, in 2024 reached 31.57 million. EUR, which is 53% more than in 2023, the company suffered a loss of 71,800 EUR, although it worked profitably a year ago. The company's financial results for 2025 have not yet been announced. The company is directly owned by the Serbian company SKTrade DOO Beograd, and the ultimate beneficiary is S. Šneider.

 

Valientė, which operates the Mere brand stores in Lithuania, is also growing: last year the company increased its turnover by 16%, to 75.75 million. EUR (last year – 65.2 million EUR).

 

The company's website states that there are 26 Mere stores in Lithuania in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Alytus, Panevėžys, Šalčininkai, Šilutė, Telšiai, Jonava, Tauragė, Jurbarka, Kretinga, Marijampolė, Kaunas, Mažeikiai, Nauja Akmenė, Utena, Plungė and Radviliškis. There are 12 Mere stores in Latvia.”