MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/. Uniqlo, one of Japan’s largest apparel producers and retailers, is reducing the number of stores in Russia, Vedomosti business daily wrote on Friday with reference to one of the company’s employees.
"Uniqlo has notified the company’s staff that certain stores temporarily shuttered are being prepared for full closing," he said. The company has summoned managers to certain outlets in department stores to collect goods from shop-windows and prepare them for removal, the source added without specifying the number of stores planned to be closed. That said, at least two outlets on Russian territory have already been closed. In March, the company had 50 stores, whereas at the end of September that number was 48, the paper said citing information from the company’s website.
Two consultants working in commercial realty are also aware of Uniqlo’s plans to close some stores in the country. According to head of CORE.XP’s retail space rent department Nadezhda Tsvetkova, cuts are mainly underway only in certain regions. She refused to name specific department stores, though Uniqlo had 29 such outlets as of the beginning of March. The company will most likely carry stocks to flagship stores, as well as to outlets where rental contracts cannot be annulled quickly, Tsvetkova said.
Uniqlo did not respond to Vedomosti’s request.
On March 10, Fast Retailing Co., which manages the chain of Uniqlo stores, announced the suspension of its activities in Russia. It was not reported when Uniqlo would stop its operations in the country.