Two stores in Moscow at first

It has been confirmed by management spokesman Harald Lux that OBI, the German market leader, intends to open its first Russian DIY superstore in Moscow within the next 24 months. One more location is also being planned, though the group does not intend any further expansion within the Moscow metropolitan area before completion of the test phase. The stores are not to be run as straightforward franchising operations, but by means of a joint venture with a Russian partner company, Next.
As chairman Manfred Maus has said, before the start of the 2008 Olympics in China, OBI has plans for the opening of six stores in the capital, Peking, alone; four of these will be finished by 2004 already. The group’s four existing outlets are said to be operationally in the black.