The activity of retailers in terms of launching new stores in St. Petersburg last year remained at the level of 2021. According to the consulting company Nikoliers, about 150 stores have opened in the city's shopping centers, with almost half of these openings in the clothing and footwear segment.
In 2022, 13 new brands appeared on the St. Petersburg market, three of which are Italian clothing and footwear brands: LORIATA, Dan John, RUCK&MAUL. Also, “children's” retailers from England (Royal Rabbit) and the USA (Guess Kids) entered the market, as well as eight representatives of Russian companies: LOLOCLO children's goods, VIVA LA VIKA jewelry, EMKA clothes and shoes, YOU WANNA, Urban Vibes, GJO .E, ROSI and Giovanni Botticelli.
About 46% of new store openings in St. Petersburg shopping centers in 2022 were in the clothing and footwear segment. Befree, Familia, Mexx, Gerry Weber brands are among the most actively expanding their presence in the market: they launched two or three stores in St. Petersburg shopping centers. In second place in terms of the frequency of openings are shops for goods for children (11% of the total). For example, Button Blue launched new outlets in the Europolis, Gallery and Mega Parnas shopping malls, sela moms & monsters has two new stores in Europolis and Mega Parnas.
In the second half of 2022, St. Petersburg shopping centers were actively replacing the closed stores of foreign brands. Several clothing stores have opened in the Galeria shopping center: Freedom Store is located on the site of Nike, and Rosi now operates in the former Lee Wrangler premises. The Snow Queen opened in the place of Marks & Spenser in Mega Parnas, and Gerry Weber took over the premises of Tommy Hilfiger in two Megas.
It should be noted that in Russia as a whole, by the end of the first quarter, about 95 brands suspended their work, 57 of them were also represented on the St. Petersburg market. By the end of December, stores of 16 brands, including Women's Secret, Decathlon, Uniqlo, Adidas, remain temporarily closed in St. Petersburg shopping centers. Finally, 15 brands left the market, among them Gap, Victoria's Secret, Hesburger. Some companies, thanks to the adjustment of technical, logistical and operational issues, were able to continue working under the old name (Tous, Swarovski), others sold the business to local franchisors or partners, or foreign holdings with a subsequent brand change (LPP, Starbucks, McDonalds, L'Occitane, Samsonite, Rebook and others).
On the wave of market transformation, Russian companies are expanding their presence. In 2022, Melon Fashion Group (brands Befree, Zarina, Love Republic, Sela), LIME, Kari increased the size of stores and the assortment matrix, adding previously unrepresented product groups. At the end of the year, a Befree store was opened in the Piter Raduga shopping mall in a new expanded format, and LIME tripled the area of its store in the Mega Dybenko shopping mall (up to 1 sq. m.).
“According to the results of 2022, we see that a number of Russian brands have announced qualitative changes in the concepts and formats of their stores,” comments Irina Tsarkova, Director of the Retail Real Estate Department at Nikoliers. — In the coming months, we expect this trend to intensify and fill empty spaces in St. Petersburg shopping centers. Thus, the Munz Group (Thomas Munz brand) plans to open new format stores with clothes, shoes and accessories, Melon Fashion Group, Noun, Adamas, L'Etoile, Emka, Candellabra Home, announced plans to seriously increase their presence throughout the country. Demix, Sokolov and others. Despite the savings model of people's behavior, even in the current situation, purchasing power remains at an acceptable level, and brands from abroad continue to show interest in the Russian market. It takes at least a year for any foreign brand to enter the Russian market, so we will be able to see new names in shopping centers as early as 2023.”
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