German retailer Otto sold all its assets in Russia

German retailer Otto Group has sold all of its assets in Russia. About it informed “Kommersant” with reference to sources in the real estate market.

According to the newspaper, the German group sold two warehouse facilities in the Tver region to multi-temperature warehouse operator Multicold. This is confirmed by the data of SPARK-Interfax, where Alexey Mitrokhin, the top manager of Multicold, became the head of Business Service LLC, which owns one of the warehouses in the region. The operator himself confirmed the fact of the transaction to the newspaper.

Otto Group came to Russia in 1991. The Group began to reduce its presence in the Russian market as early as 2018. Rene Picard, CEO of Otto Group Russia, in an interview with Vedomosti in January 2022 told, which complicated the situation with work in Russia, a wave of sanctions in 2014-2015. The group finally announced the end of its activities after the start of the military operation in Ukraine.

“From now on [введения санкций в 2014 – 2015 гг.] we kept a close eye on the market and tried to find a more flexible approach. As a result, we came to the conclusion that it would be better to close some companies in Russia, and transform those that remain to meet the requirements of the market,” Picard said at the time.

The CEO also noted that Russia has a chance to become a “manufacturing country for fashion brands”, since the country is “much closer to Europe than China, from which things are usually brought.”