MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. Russian retail chain of personal care and beauty products Gold Apple is planning to start intensive foreign expansion. The first store will open in Belarus, the company told TASS.

"The retail chain plans an intensive expansion into international markets, not only in the CIS countries. The development plans are ambitious," the company said. The first store outside Russia will open on July 9 in Minsk.

Gold Apple is a chain of personal care and beauty products stores in Russia, with 22 stores. The chain ranks second in terms of sales among perfumery and cosmetics retailers in Russia. The first store was opened in 2004, and since then, the chain has been actively developing, currently with stores in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk, Samara, Khabarovsk, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, and Perm.