The first sellers of goods with the symbols of Sochi-2014

The Sochi-2014 Organizing Committee will today sign the first agreements with licensees in the retail category. The Sportmaster (sporting goods), Begemot (children's toys) and Uvenco (vending machines) chains will become the official sellers of goods with Olympic symbols.

The organizing committee needs to organize the sale of products with the symbols of the Sochi Olympics in the amount of $ 500 million, it followed from the presentation of the licensing program for the 2014 Games. This requires finding about 50-70 licensees in order for them to release and sell 5 items in 30 categories. The committee itself will receive a percentage of sales, the total amount must be at least $ 35 million (the income was indicated in the application for the Olympics). Approximately 80% of sales of licensed products are carried out directly during the Games. Clothes account for about 40% of the total sales, 15% are mascots, most often soft toys (the Bear, Leopard and Zayka became the mascots of the 2014 Sochi Olympics).

The fact that today the organizing committee of the Sochi Games will issue the first retail licenses was told by sources in the retail market. According to them, the licensee will be the Behemoth chain of children's toy hypermarkets (62 outlets, according to the site) and Sportmaster (273), the sports goods store operator. Another operator will be Boris Belotserkovsky’s Uvenco company, which plans to install around 500 vending machines for selling souvenirs throughout Russia.

Sportmaster is already a Sochi-2014 licensee in the sports equipment category, and the Grand Toys group of companies, which includes the Behemoth network, is in the category of children's toys and puzzles. Their licenses, as follows from the rules of procedure for the selection of licensees, give the right not only to manufacture, but also to distribute licensed products. But the retail operator’s license also allows you to sell goods of other manufacturers of Olympic products, and most importantly, use the symbols of the Games not only in the goods themselves, but also in window dressing and store departments, said the source in one of the licensees.

“Grand Toys” at the end of last year began selling soft mascots of the Olympics in Sochi, as well as radio-controlled helicopters with the symbols of the Games. Sportmaster plans to start selling licensed goods only in the coming fall, a source close to the network said. According to him, the company is going to sell Olympic goods through special departments that will be created in existing stores. Sportmaster’s own sports equipment and various types of goods produced by other licensees will go on sale, but there are no plans for clothes and shoes yet.

The Sochi-2014 licensee in the clothing and footwear category is Mikhail Kusnirovich BoscoSport. The other day, he said that he also wants to open Olympic stores and is in talks to obtain an appropriate license. About this newspaper Kommersant.