Stockmann, a large Finnish retail group known mainly for its department stores, has signed a deal to open and operate many new Nike concept stores in Russia over the next five years as part of a broader expansion program in that fast-growing market. Stockmann is planning to start up between 20 and 30 free-standing Nike stores, each with about 300 square meters of selling space, in urban and shopping center locations over the 5-year period, concentrating initially on Moscow and St. Petersburg. Contrary to reports, there are no plans to open a larger NikeTown store for the moment, unless a premium site becomes available at a reasonable price.
Nike, which took over the distribution of its products in Russia in 2003, currently has about 100 single-brand stores in the country, half of which were opened in the last 12 months. The pace of new openings is set to continue at a nearly comparable speed, working with Stockmann and other partners, in an apparent bid to catch up fast with the larger and partly controlled retail network set up by Adidas and Reebok. Like in other European countries, Nike’s stores are all operated by franchise partners supported by plenty of marketing and other initiatives, including specialists such as Epicentre in Moscow and Viysshaya Liga in the Southern part of the country. Nike’s previous exclusive distributor in Russia, Delta Sport, had set up 16 Nike stores in the country, but it subsequently closed some of them or converted them to Intersport stores as another subsidiary of the group has the Intersport license in Russia.
Stockmann, which operates big sporting goods sections in its Finnish department stores, entered the Russian market back in 1989. It currently operates three department stores in Moscow, none of which carries sporting goods, and 16 stores under two other banners – Seppälä and Bestseller - in Moscow and in other Russian cities. A fourth Stockmann department store will open in Moscow in February 2007. It will not have a sporting goods department, but that may be the case with a fifth department store of 25,000 square meters that will anchor a 50,000-sqm. shopping center planned by the Finnish group for a start-up in the 2nd half of 2008 in St. Petersburg.
