On March 5, Inditex suspended all its commercial activity in Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Now, a few days after the eight month anniversary of that decision and, without the conflict having come to an end, the textile giant sell your business in this country and leave Russia permanently. At least for now.
Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Oysho are currently far from reopening their doors in Russian territory, where Inditex had been present since 2003, becoming its second largest market. And it is that the Galician group has reached an agreement with the Daher conglomerate to sell them your business in that country.
Without giving details of the amount of the transaction, the National Securities Market Commission has announced this operation, which involves the cessation of all Inditex operations in the country governed by Putin. Of course, it does not rule out the possibility of resuming commercial activity in the future through a franchise regime.
At the moment, the current agreement includes preserve part of the jobs of Inditex in Russia. It will do so by transferring most of the premises that occupied its stores on a rental basis. According to the statement, “these premises will house the future points of sale of brands owned by the purchasing group, totally unrelated to Inditex.”
In other words, the stores that, until now, had displayed the Zara sign in y company in the window will now open their doors with the brands owned by Daher, a conglomerate based in the United Arab Emirates. owned by the family with the same name.
This family owns, among other assets, the Dubai Mall (which is one of the largest in the Middle East), controls Azadea and, in fact, already manages an Inditex franchise in that region and in North Africa. This means that they have the right to exploit for their own benefit in those geographical areas, and under the conditions they have agreed with Inditex, the marketing of their brand products.
Total, 14% of Inditex stores are managed by third parties. Thus, the group’s income is divided into 86% in its own stores and 14% in franchised establishments.
Another textile firm that has definitely closed down in Russia is Hennes & Mauritz. A) Yes, As part of the process of liquidating its business, H&M announced in July its intention to temporarily reopen physical stores in the country for a limited period of time to sell excess inventory.
Photos | gtres