Starik Khottabych closes outlets

The Russian chain Starik Khottabych is closing 23 of its stores, eleven of them in and around Moscow. This announcement comes from diysales.ru, an industry portal, with reference to representatives of the company. A major clearance sale offering discounts of 50 per cent is being held at present. This makes it obvious that the industry’s former leading light for renovating and fitting-out in Russia is being forced to submit to the pressure coming from the DIY stores. As recently as the spring of 2012, after a successful year in 2011 with sales of € 100 mio, the company announced its intention of growing still further. The aim was to grow sales to € 500 mio within five years and increase the number of stores from the then figure of 40 to a total of 80.