Homecenter leaves Chelyabinsk (and Russia?)

After only four years, the lights of the Chelyabinsk store of the Israeli DIY chain Homecenter will permanently go out on Sunday. The company management did not inform customers and employees until mid-September and gave no further explanation about the impending closure.
A hasty scheduled sale with up to 60 per cent discounts has already caused a gaping void in most of the 7 500m2 store’s shelves. A local real estate expert sees the cause of the misery in the fierce competition, especially from Castorama. Furthermore, the store location and access are not ideal and there are not enough parking possibilities, making it difficult to re-let the premises to another DIY retailer, unless a supermarket that pulls in the customers can be found. Magnit could be such a customer magnet. The leading grocery chain in the Russian Federation has just built a self-service department store in the immediate neighbourhood.
In the first half of 2014, the two Moscow Homecenter stores already had to close down and there has been no concrete information about the fate of the two remaining stores in Orenburg and Yaroslavl.