The Restore chain becomes multi-brand

The Restore chain (part of Inventive Retail Group, IRG), known as a mono-brand seller of Apple equipment, announced a change in concept and visual style. Now the company will sell equipment from different manufacturers and open stores with twice the area, up to 200 sq. m. Further development of the network will depend on the quality of after-sales service and the availability of unique products in the assortment, experts say.

The Restore chain of stores, which used to be an official dealer and premium reseller of Apple, announced about changing positioning to multi-brand. The company’s stores already stock equipment and electronics from other manufacturers. Restore also unveiled a new logo and announced plans to open new stores larger than before – 150-200 square meters. m versus the average area of ​​the current points of 100 square meters. m.

The first Restore stores of the new format opened in Moscow on Neglinnaya Street and in the Evropeisky shopping center. The next point, according to the company, will appear in Afimall in Moscow City. We are talking about the place where the store of another premium Apple reseller, Cstore, owned by the bankrupt Svyaznoy, was previously located. Retailer closed a specialized network back in June 2022 and converted its points into standard ones. By September 2023, as reported RBC, Svyaznoy closed all stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Apple itself stopped direct supplies of equipment to the Russian Federation in March 2022 as a result of the military operation in Ukraine.

IRG evaluates potential locations for new Restore stores based on the expected reach of the target audience, Alexey Shubin, vice president of the group for electronics, explained to Kommersant: “Cstore’s place in Afimall was their best in this regard – that’s where there is an audience with whom We’d like to have as much contact as possible.”

According to him, Svyaznoy “managed to get good locations for mono-brand stores, for example, on Tverskaya Street, but they did not amount to a lot.” IRG Vice President for Real Estate Development Maria Kiseleva clarified that the group “does not specifically claim the areas” that were previously occupied by Cstore stores.

Apple strictly controlled the image of premium resellers of its equipment, says Telecom Daily CEO Denis Kuskov: “If we had removed the sign above the entrance, then only by the price tags could we understand whether it was Restore or another similar store.” In his opinion, now the chain will need to “carefully build a pricing policy,” and if there is a significant difference in retail prices with other stores, “clearly let customers know what they will be overpaying for.” The expert adds that Restore could be differentiated from other networks by, in particular, a warranty and post-warranty service program comparable to AppleCare “with 100% coverage of warranty cases.”

Retailers began to rely on opening larger retail outlets even after the start of the pandemic, and IRG’s ​​decision regarding the area of ​​future Restores follows this trend, notes General Director of Infoline-Analytics Mikhail Burmistrov.

“Properties that display only top-end assortments become less competitive,” he says. According to him, making money on Apple products alone “has become difficult due to price competition and the use of gray schemes.” Mr. Burmistrov believes that in the future it will be important for Restore to expand its range through unique, exclusive products.

Yuri Litvinenko