News

Wednesday, 08.02.2012

The news was announced by the General Manager of the company Alexander Lopatin, repots Kommersant.  "The new project is oriented to the middle and middle plus price range with an average receipt worth about 1,500 rubles. The first Skazka will be open in mid-October in Tverskaya, 9 and we are planning to expand the chain to about 20 stores in the next three-five years, including the regions," said Mr. Lopatin. The amount of investments in opening the flagship store in Tverskaya, he estimated at about 80-100 million rubles excluding the rent.

As a reminder, last summer the British chain Hamleys cancelled negotiations with F.D.Lab on opening its stores in Russia.

The first store of the chain was supposed to be open in September in Tverskaya Street, downtown Moscow in the former Samsung store. It was to become the flagship store of the British chain of children's goods Hamleys.

Total area of the store was planned at 1.75k sq. m. Besides, other stores in St-Petersburg and other Russian large cities were to be open.

F.D.Lab names the high loyalty the British asked for using the brand as the reason to halt the negotiations.
Meanwhile, the British party is looking for new partners to enter the Russian market. Hamleys has said they are still interested in Russia. No news on new doors is available today.

According to Galina Maliborskaya, Head of Agent Services, Commercial Real Estate, Colliers International, there can be different reasons for the breakdown, that together with the high loyalty may include a strict agreement, major financial investments in developing the chain and other conditions considered unacceptable for the Russian partner.

"All this could have made the partnership with Hamleys unattractive to F.D.Lab counting it is not the only brand in the portfolio of the company. F.D.Lab has rights of several equally interesting brands including Habitat and Mamas&Papas," she said.

Ms Maliborskaya said that the situation with Hamleys can develop in two ways. The company will wither start looking for another Russian partner that is quite a challenge in the current conditions and other international retailers trying to break into the Russian market have acknowledged that.
 
Or, there is another way, she said. The company may enter the Russian market with the parent company, but in this case it depends how wiling Hamleys is to bear all the related risks.

Either way, this is unlikely to happen this year as it will take time to find a partner and have negotiations or to make a decision on entering the Russian market with the parent company. Hamleys can definitely succeed as the shop concept is very interesting and popular in all the countries where it operates and a lot will depend on how "right" the partner and the location of the flagship stores will be.