Stockmann Tries On Nike
Finnish Stockmann has agreed with Nike Russia about launching the Nike single-brand stores here. Stockmann is willing to open at least 20 outlets within five years. The analysts attribute the partnership to Nike’s desire to strengthen in Russia, which is dominated by Nike’s global competitor, Adidas.
Stockmann and Nike Russia have entered into a partnership agreement authorizing the Finnish company to launch Nike stores here. The first store will open already in early 2007 and the target is to launch at least 20 stores, around 300sq m each, in the following five years, Jussi Kuutsa, foreign operations director at Stockmann, said, pointing out they will be buying product directly in Nike.
The agreement of Stockmann and Nike speñifies that the latter will maintain relations with the Russian partners. So far, Nike has been promoted by Intersport (it was Delta Sport before). The project value could be from $6 million to $8 million, the analysts estimate.
Stockmann approached this market in 1989. It controls three stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg and has Seppala and Bestseller chains in franchising management.
The partnership is expected to win Nike the better market share and change the force alignment in the country. But competitors don’t look rattled. “Twenty outlets won’t be enough to strengthen Nike’s standing in Russia,” said Dmitry Binevsky, marketing director at Russia’s office of Adidas. “We opened 100 stores independently in the past 12 months. What’s more, in our development, we’ve focused not only on Moscow and St.Petersburg but also on many other regions. It won’t be easy to narrow the gap.”
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All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 16, 2006
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