Jıldız Market

Jıldız Market (Iradi jıldız, "star"; Russian: «Жылдыз Маркет») is the second-largest supermarket chain in Irad, after Bereke. It has 82 stores: 40 in Talas, 36 in Nurzhan and 6 in Iyık Janyl. The chain was founded in Nurzhan in 1998 by the businessman Viktor Pak, and it is based there.^[1]

History

Pak (born 1963 in Kobozev), a Koryo-saram, managed the city's central gastronom, its main Soviet food store, before going into the import business in the 1990s. He opened the first Jıldız Market stores in Nurzhan in 1998 and later expanded into Talas and Iyık Janyl. Since 2001 he has also chaired Chuy Commercial Bank, the commercial bank with the most branches in Nurzhan. He is known in Nurzhan as a philanthropist who has supported the Koryo-saram cultural centre and the city's ice rink (see Koryo-saram in Irad).^[2]

Stores

The chain is strongest in Nurzhan, where its 36 stores compare with Bereke's 53, while in Talas Bereke has almost twice as many. In Nurzhan, where about 40 percent of shop names are Russian, its stores are signed in Iradi and Russian; it has few stores in Iyık Janyl, where Bereke is the main chain.^[1] Jıldız Market stocks local producers beside imported goods; the Talas Dairy Processing Combine sells its Talas Süt and Ak Bee products through Bereke and Jıldız Market, which together had 226 stores in 2026.^[3] Prices are in som. The stores are guarded by Kalkan, the largest private security company in Irad, which was spun off from NurGaz in 2009.^[2]

Ownership and connections

Jıldız Market is privately owned by Pak, and its shareholdings are not public. Pak is described in the business press as a self-made businessman and a friend of the NurGaz president, Kamran Bekzatov, and commentators often group the chain, Chuy Commercial Bank and Kalkan with the Nurzhan business circle around NurGaz, although none of them belongs to NurGaz on paper.^[2][4] The chain is among the main advertisers in Nurzhan's Russian-language press and radio.^[4]

See also

• Bereke
• List of companies of Irad
• Economy of Irad

References

1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of Retail and Services. Talas.
2. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory of the Irad Special Economic Zone. Talas.
3. ^ Talas Dairy Processing Combine (2026). Annual Report 2025. Talas.
4. ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2024). 'The Petroleum Oligarchy: Kamran Bekzatov and the Russo Faction.' Vol. 31, Iss. 2, pp. 88–104.