Women’s secrets will be told from Belarus – Newspaper Kommersant No. 68 (7513) of 04/19/2023

The Russian stores of the Spanish seller of lingerie and homewear Women’ secret, which remain closed for a year, may resume work under the same brand. The company, which announced its withdrawal from Russia, will transfer some of its points of sale in the country to the Belarusian Fashion House franchisee. Previously, another Spanish clothing brand, Mango, followed this path, which allowed it to keep part of the stores under its own sign. The lingerie sales segment is still attractive to foreign retailers, so many of them are in no hurry to leave Russia, experts say. Moreover, the Estonian BonBon Lingerie, which previously worked only online, this year began to open the first offline stores in St. Petersburg.

Two sources of Kommersant in the retail real estate market told Kommersant about the plans of Tendam, which is developing Women’s secret, to transfer its Russian stores to the management of a partner. In HeadHunter, “Kommersant” found information about the recruitment of staff for chain stores in the Moscow shopping centers “Metropolis”, “Avenue”, “Europolis”, as well as in the shopping center of the same name in St. Petersburg and “Atmosfera” in the same city. The Belarusian company Fashion House is looking for an employee, it is indicated in the ads. This company develops in Belarus under the Women’secret franchise and a number of other Western brands, including Mango, MaxMara, Zegna. In Russia, Fashion House is developing several stores of the Italian Terranova.

Russian points of sale of Women’ secret have remained closed since March 2022, when Tendam announced its withdrawal from the Russian market due to the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Fashion House declined to comment. The Russian office of Women’s secret and the Spanish Tendam did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

The stores that the franchisee will open in Russia will operate under the same sign and sell the brand’s collection, Kommersant’s interlocutors say. According to them, not all points of sale can resume work, as the Women’secret partner intends to refuse to rent space for unprofitable stores. Until last year, Women’secret was a fairly large lingerie chain in Russia with more than 50 stores, 18 of which were in Moscow and 11 in St. Petersburg, says Anna Lebsak-Kleymans, CEO of Fashion Consulting Group.

Spanish Tendam owns the fashion brands Women’ secret, Springfield, Pedro del Hierro and Cortefiel, which have stores in 89 countries. The first Women’ secret and Springfield stores in Russia opened in 2006. In 2010, Melon Fashion Group acquired the local outlets of these brands under a master franchise agreement. But in 2013, Tendam decided to develop its business in Russia on its own by buying stores from its franchisee. At the same time, in 2020, Springfield retail outlets in Russia were transferred online. According to SPARK-Interfax, in 2021, the revenue of Fashion Retail Group LLC, a subsidiary of Tendam in the Russian Federation, amounted to 1.85 billion rubles.

Another Spanish clothing chain, Mango, also transferred part of its Russian business to Turkish Fiba Retail after the start of the military conflict. As a result, several Mango stores in Moscow continue to operate under their own banner. At the same time, for example, Inditex (brands Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, etc.) and Polish LPP (Reserved, Cropp, Mohito, Sinsay), having transferred their Russian business to partners, forbade them to use their brands.

In general, in 2022, several foreign lingerie brands left the Russian market, including Victoria`s Secret, Triumph, and DIM, with the exception of franchise outlets. But in Russia, this is a developed segment, in which large chains, small brands and author’s projects are active players, says Ms. Lebsak-Kleymans. Therefore, the Western brands Tezenis, Calzedonia, Intimissimi continue to work, adds Evgenia Khakberdieva, director of the retail real estate department at NF Group. Moreover, the Estonian lingerie chain BonBon Lingerie, which previously worked on the Russian market only in an online format, in April of this year began to open its first offline points in St. Petersburg.

Alina Savitskaya