Experts have found out which of the countries are the most active exporters bringing new brands to Russia, which brands have entered our market over the past year and which are still only planning to come.

As part of the study, analysts assessed the presence of the most popular and rapidly developing brands in the largest cities of Russia (with a population of at least 500 thousand people). Only those brands that, as of December 2018, had at least one single-brand store in the city, including a store under the franchise system, were taken into account as represented in the city. Brands that were present only in department stores, multi-brand stores, outlets or stock stores were excluded from the study.
 

The results are generally expected: absolute leadership among fashion brands is behind Italy. The total share of Italian brands was 23% of the total number of brands that participated in the study. 1st place Italy took thanks to fashion retailers, and Italian brands from both the luxury segment and the mass market showed high activity. The most active brands were Calzedonia and Intimissimi – they are present in 97% of the largest cities of the country. Next comes United Colors of Benetton – stores of this brand are available in 78% of major cities.

In general, European retailers should be considered the most active: they occupy four out of five places in the top exporting countries. The top of the rating, in addition to European countries, included USA –2nd place thanks to the catering segment (19% of the total number of brands). At the same time, only restaurant chains are among the four most popular American retailers in Russia. It is the activity of fast food brands – Burger King (100% coverage of key markets), KFC (100%), McDonald's (92%) and Subway (84%) – allowed the USA to take a high position.

The 3rd place in terms of the number of brands present in Russia was taken by France (15% of the total number of analyzed international brands), mainly due to luxury brands: Cartier, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton. Moreover, France has gained leadership in the luxury segment: it owns 25% of the total number of foreign premium brands in Russia. In general, the most active French retailer in the Russian market was the cosmetics chain Yves Rocher, which covered 100% of major cities.

In 4th and 5th places Great Britain and Spain – 10% and 7%, respectively, of the total number of foreign brands present in Russia. Interestingly, although the British brands are ahead of the Spanish ones quantitatively, the latter cover a larger number of Russian cities. So, for example, the brands included in the Inditex group (Bershka, Stradivarius, Pull & Bear, Zara and Oysho), as well as the Mango brand, cover more than 75% of key cities in Russia. But among English retailers, only Reebok was among the leading brands with such coverage. The rest of the networks, thanks to which the UK entered the top five exporting countries, are Mothercare, Lush, The Body Shop, Jo Malone They lag far behind the Spanish ones and are represented in less than 65% of major cities.

"Europe is still firmly holding its position, it accounts for 65% of the debuts that have occurred over the past four years," notes Olesya Dzyuba, Head of the Research Department at JLL. Asian countries have not yet made it into the top 5 brand exporters, but the share of newcomers from this part of the world is gradually growing, and Asian brands are gaining popularity with the Russian audience. In 2011 and 2015, the share of new retailers from Asian countries was 5%, and in 2014 and 2018, it was already 9%. At the same time, Germany, on the contrary, lost its position a little: having dropped one step in the list, compared to 2015, it took 6th place as a result of the departure of Media Markt and Takko Fashion.

If we consider the top of the most popular foreign brands in terms of representation in Russian cities, then, in addition to these leading countries (USA, France, Italy), Turkey with the clothing brand Colin's, Denmark with shoes and accessories Ecco, Switzerland with a watch Swatch and South Korea with electronics Samsung.

The Italian Max Mara has been the leader of the luxury brand rating for the first year: the brand is present in 43% of the analyzed cities, and this despite the fact that Russian regions as a whole are not covered by premium brands due to low demand. Also this year, the top three luxury segment leaders for the first time included German accessories Montblanc (27%), because of which the Italian men's clothing brand Ermenegildo Zegna (24%) had to make room and slide into third place.

Author: Ekaterina Reutskaya

The text uses data from the analytical report JLL – Retail Destination Russia 2019

Photo: from open sources