Gulliver for growth – Newspaper Kommersant No. 23 (7468) dated 02/08/2023

Decreasing consumption of children’s goods and the emergence of opportunities in the clothing market due to the departure of some global brands are encouraging players to diversify their business. For example, the company that manages the Gulliver and Button Blue children’s stores wants to enter the women’s clothing market. The expansion of the range will increase the sales of outlets, but the competition in the selected segment is already high.

Gulliver, a major manufacturer and retailer of children’s clothing, is planning to launch women’s clothing collections. This follows from the vacancies of the leading designer and designer published in the group’s profile on the HeadHunter portal. Their responsibilities include the development of basic designs for women’s clothing, including outerwear, the creation of collections, sketches, the study of new trends, etc. Gulliver Kommersant did not respond.

The Gulliver group of companies was founded in 1997 and is engaged in the production and sale of children’s clothing and goods under the Gulliver and Button Blue brands, as well as managing retail chains of the same name. According to its own data, the group includes more than 280 stores. The revenue of JSC “Trading House “Gulliver and Co”” in 2021 increased by 6.5%, to 3.48 billion rubles, net profit was about 50.5 million rubles. Igor Kuleshov is considered the owner of the group.

As Antonina Tsitsulina, President of the Association of Children’s Goods Industry Enterprises, notes, in 2022 there was a serious decrease in consumption throughout the children’s goods market due to a general increase in the trend towards consumer savings and a decrease in the birth rate. According to Rosstat, for 11 months of 2022, the birth rate decreased by 6.8% compared to the same period last year. At the same time, Ms. Tsitsulina continues, with the growth in the number of teenagers and young people, the need for clothing for these age categories also increases. And manufacturers of children’s clothing have opportunities to move into this niche, the expert adds.

Alexey Vanchugov, managing partner of Vanchugov & Partners, notes that Gulliver already has developed logistics, production facilities and a team to expand the range. Evgenia Khakberdieva, director of the retail real estate department at NF Group, adds that among the visitors to Gulliver stores there are future and nursing mothers, so the company may well include clothes for women up to 30–35 years old in the assortment.

Women are the main visitors to children’s clothing stores, so entering a new segment will allow Gulliver to expand its audience and increase the average check with comparable retail outlet traffic, Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline-Analytics, agrees. Olga Antonova, head of the Commonwealth Partnership retail real estate department, adds that the conditions for launching new collections may be suitable due to the vacant niches in the fashion market. According to Nikoliers, in 2022, 23 retail chains, including clothing ones, announced their departure from Russia, and 27 companies suspended their work in the country.

At the same time, says Mr. Vanchugov, there is already high competition between local manufacturers in the women’s clothing segment. According to Olga Antonova, the question also remains how Gulliver will be able to maintain expertise, logistics, access to quality raw materials in the face of tightening sanctions, which complicate the development opportunities for many clothing manufacturers and sellers in Russia.

Mikhail Burmistrov notes that, in general, many clothing chains today are on the path of expanding their assortment, especially since there are now opportunities for renting larger stores. According to NF Group, the share of vacant space in shopping centers in Moscow in 2022 increased from 14% to 15.9%, in St. Petersburg – from 4.3% to 10.6%. Thus, the manufacturer and seller of women’s clothing Lime plans to launch men’s and children’s lines, Melon Fashion Group (brands Zarina, Befree, Sela, Love Republic) is also expanding the format of stores and the range of some of its brands. Shoe retailers Munz Group (Thomas Munz and Salamander chains) and Ralf Ringer are also thinking about launching clothing lines.

Alina Savitskaya