Wrangler is going east in terms of expansion. More concretely, Russia is on top of the priority list, a market where the brand has an ambitious retail roll-out in the pipeline: after opening a new flagship store inside Moscow’s Metropolis shopping mall recently, several more openings in the country are planned until 2020.
The interior of the Moscow store was also part of a new retail design where a factory-inspired window acts as a room divider, in a clear-wood dominated space featuring heritage details like a jean-button-looking door handle and posters with historical brand ads.
We had a quick chat with Rino Castiglione, Wrangler’s EMEA president, in order to get more details on the relevancy of Russia for the brand’s business.
Which share of global sales does Russia currently represent? What’s the country’s contribution to your turnover?
Russia is one of the biggest players in EMEA and in terms of business growth it lands in the top 5 markets for Europe covering approximately 12% of our EMEA turnover.
The Russian Ruble has shown signs of weakness in recent times because of the weak oil price, having a profound impact on the financial results of fashion and denim companies operating there. Isn’t it something that worries you?
On the contrary, this is the right moment for us to continue expanding our business in Russia. Fashion and denim industries have taken quite the hit all over Europe, but for us specifically the impact is limited. If anything, we’re in our momentum. A lot also depends on brand strategy, planning and product offering.
Until 2020, no less than 50 store openings are planned throughout the country. In which form are these set to happen? Which retail concept will be the priority?
We’re mainly rolling out full-price stores, shop-in-shops and we’re looking into developing e-commerce as well.
For the whole EMEA region, 20 further openings are in the pipeline for 2017. Which countries and cities will see new Wrangler stores?
For now, we can only disclose that 10 of these will take place in Russia.
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