Having sold his stake in Maratex, Dmitry Ermolenko began developing another business

Dmitry Ermolenko, co-owner of the Maratex company, which develops popular clothing stores Esprit, Aldo and River Island, invested the proceeds from the sale of shares in this company into a new business. As it turns out, the Butlers homewares and Six and I am accessories stores are owned by his company Zeebra. And now Mr. Ermolenko is negotiating the launch of two Italian chains of cosmetics stores, Bottega Verde and Glossip, in Ukraine.

Co-owner of the Maratex chain Dmitry Ermolenko has another business - he owns the Zeebra company, he said yesterday during the Retail Industry Forum conference in Kyiv. Now the company is developing franchise chains of stores selling accessories Six and I am (3 stores each), as well as the well-known German chain of household goods Butlers (9 stores, 7 of them in Kyiv). “I created the company in 2009. It was then that I sold part of the shares of Maratex to Empik Media & Fashion,” noted Mr. Ermolenko.

In the near future, Zeebra will engage in another area - the company expects to bring to the market the Italian chains of natural cosmetics Bottega Verde and decorative cosmetics Glossip. Mr. Ermolenko noted that the agreement with the companies is planned to be signed next week. The first stores will appear in Kyiv - Glossip will open in the Dream Town shopping center in July. Zeebra plans to open 20-25 stores of these chains within three years. The area of each of them will be 40-50 square meters. m. Investments in opening will be about $1.5 thousand/sq.m. m.

Unlike clothing retail, the segments of stores selling accessories, household goods and cosmetics are practically unoccupied, says Mr. Ermolenko. “Now the retail clothing market is experiencing hard times. New players are entering the market, but the consumer has not begun to spend more,” says the manager.

There are not many mono-brand chains in the perfumery and cosmetics market, says Anna Chubotina, head of the retail space department at the consulting company Jones Lang LaSalle. According to her, MAC, Lush, Yves Rocher are developing in the market. At the end of 2011, the British chain The Body Shop, specializing in natural cosmetics, announced plans to exit. At that time, market participants noted that the natural cosmetics market in Ukraine was just emerging. Its leaders are the Yves Rocher (59 stores) and Lush (13 stores) chains.

The Bottega Verde chain (developing 300 stores in Italy) in Ukraine will compete with Yves Rocher. And Glossip (owns 6 stores in Italy) is with the MAC (Makeup Art Cosmetics) and Inglot chains. “The Glossip brand is young. But its advantage is that 90% of cosmetics are produced at the company’s own factories,” says Dmitry Ermolenko.

Veronica Gavrilyuk

Billa opened in the Globus shopping center

Yesterday in the center of Kyiv, a Billa grocery supermarket opened in the Globus shopping center, the company’s press service reported. The store is located in the second line of the shopping center on the first floor. The supermarket will be open 24 hours a day. “Billa is opening on the site of the Sportmaster store,” Viktor Frolov, head of Billa’s real estate department in Ukraine, clarified to Kommersant. “The retail outlet with an area of 900 sq. m was closed on February 28. Our lease agreement expired, which we did not renew with the landlord,” says Vladimir Yakimchuk, director of the Sportmaster Group of Companies in Ukraine. According to him, with such rental rates, the chain store cannot show efficiency. “Billa offered about $50/sq. m per month for rent. While “Sportmaster” paid monthly $28/sq. m,” a source in the clothing market familiar with the progress of the negotiations told Kommersant. According to the interlocutor, the flow of customers in the second line is lower than in the first, so clothing retailers were not interested in the site where Sportmaster worked. “For a grocery supermarket it’s the other way around. In the center of Kyiv there is a problem with grocery stores,” explains Kommersant’s interlocutor.

This will be the second Billa supermarket in the center of the capital. The first one was opened in the fall of 2009 in the building of the Bessarabian market. At the beginning of February of that year, the company won the exchange auction for the right to a five-year lease of this premises with an area of 601.5 square meters. m, offering 3 million UAH at a starting price of 800 thousand UAH.

Today, in addition to Billa, there is a “Buffet Gourmet” in the Arena City in the center of Kyiv. On the street Rognedinskaya, 4a there is a Spar store (between Krasnoarmeyskaya St. and Shota Rustaveli St.). Veronica Gavrilyuk

Newspaper "Kommersant Ukraine" No. 72 dated April 25, 2013, p. 7

Authors:

Veronica Gavrilyuk

Themes:

Consumer market

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