Arcandor Sees Russia Becoming Top Mail-Order Market
Arcandor AG, the owner of Karstadt department stores and the Quelle catalog company, said Russia may become its largest overseas mail-order market next year as sales surge in the country.
The retailer’s annual sales in Russia may reach 1 billion euros (USD 1.58 billion) in 2013, said Marc Sommer, the head of Arcandor’s Primondo mail-order unit. Primondo’s Russian sales may rise 57 percent to USD 180 million this year and will increase by about 60 percent annually through 2010, he added.
“The mail-order market is undergoing a boom in Russia,” Sommer said today at a press conference in Moscow. “People begin to realize how convenient it is to order by catalog and get goods delivered to your home.”
Arcandor’s Russian mail-order sales have more than doubled annually since it entered the market with Quelle in 2005. Russia’s apparel and footwear market will increase by 16 percent to 37 billion euros this year and may reach 55 billion euros in 2011, Sommer said today at a company presentation.
“People are buying European fashion very eagerly,” Sommer said. Rising incomes in Russia, the world’s biggest energy supplier, fuel consumer spending and lure international companies such as Inditex SA, Europe’s largest clothing retailer, and Stockmann Oyj, a Finnish department-store company. Hennes & Mauritz AB plans first Russian stores in 2009.
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