The family of ex-official Ruslan Rostovtsev plans to open a network of sporting goods stores Stadion

As Kommersant learned, the family of ex-official Ruslan Rostovtsev, who worked at different times in the Moscow mayor’s office and the Sochi administration, plans to open a chain of stores with goods for sports and outdoor activities Stadion. Before this, the family launched the clothing brand Yollo. Experts note a shortage of high-tech sports products on the Russian market, but entering this niche requires serious investments and production expertise.

This year, stores of the new sports goods chain Stadion, which is being developed by Stadion LLC, will begin opening throughout Russia. Kommersant found this information in the HeadHunter service, where staff are being recruited for these stores. The founder of Stadium LLC in SPARK is Semyon Rostovtsev, who is called in the media the son of businessman Ruslan Rostovtsev.

In 2023, a member of the family of Ruslan Rostovtsev, namely the alleged father of the businessman Boris Rostovtsev, became the owner and general director of the new chain of clothing stores Yollo. In June 2023, according to SPARK, Semyon Rostovtsev became the owner and manager of Yollo Picnic LLC. Yollo did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

In the early 2000s, Ruslan Rostovtsev was deputy head of the Moscow urban planning policy department, then moved to the position of first head of the Sochi administration. According to SPARK, he previously owned shares in the Taldinskaya mining company operating in the coal segment.

According to Rospatent, at the end of 2023, Stadium LLC also registered the trademarks Stadion, Inmotu and Pioneer Camp, including in the classes of sportswear and footwear. At the same time, the designation Pioneer Camp submitted for registration coincides with the Chinese sports brand of the same name, whose products are available for order in SDEK Shopping and on AliExpress, Kommersant discovered. On average, the cost of Pioneer Camp T-shirts on online platforms is 1 thousand rubles, sweatshirts – 2.7 thousand rubles, winter jackets – 9-12 thousand rubles.

The sporting goods market is currently experiencing an interesting transformation associated with the relaunch of sites that were occupied by international sports brands, notes Marina Malakhatko, senior director of CORE.XP. Thus, the Turkish FLO Retailing opened the Sneaker Box chain on the site of Reebok stores, Inventive Retail Group opened the Amazing Red chain on the basis of former Puma sales points, and Desport stores are appearing on the site of Decathlon. Local retailers and distributors, including Sportmaster and Lestate, also began to look for new suppliers among Asian sports brands and launch their own brands (see Kommersant dated November 15, 2022 and June 19, 2023).

After Decathlon left the Russian Federation, the niche of functional equipment for various sports was largely vacated on the Russian market, says Alexey Vanchugov, managing partner of Vanchugov and Partners. But, the expert warns, this category of goods belongs to the high-tech category and to enter this niche, significant investments and serious expertise in the production of such clothing are required. Lestate head of marketing Ilya Komissarov estimates the cost of creating a basic collection for one season of 100 items at $1–1.5 million.

The average area of ​​a chain sports store is 300 square meters. m, and investments in opening such a facility start at 60 million rubles. taking into account finishing and equipment, but without the purchase of goods and the cost of the rental agreement, says Ms. Malakhatko. She notes that there is still room for new players in the sporting goods market, but the main challenge for a startup is to gain visible market share. According to Alexey Vanchugov, for a company that plans to develop a chain of sports stores from scratch, it would be more logical to enter the segment of regular clothing and sports-style shoes.

According to Infoline-Analytics, the capacity of the sportswear and footwear market excluding children’s goods in 2022 decreased by approximately 11.4% year-on-year and amounted to 390 billion rubles. At the same time, by the end of 2023, agency analysts predicted market growth by 10%, to at least 430 billion rubles.

Alina Savitskaya