Mothercare stores in Kazan may open under the name Wearkids or Motherbear
The new owner of the Russian children's clothing chain has already applied for registration
One of the major distributors of world brands on the Russian market, Jamilco company became the owner of the British Mothercare chain in Russia in November, which had almost 120 stores in 30 regions of the country, including Kazan shopping centres Respublika and Mega. Now the company intends to change the name of this store to a new one. As Realnoe Vremya found out, Jamilco has applied for registration of four new trademarks. Stores in Russia will reopen under one of them in December.
Four replacement options
On December 1, the Moscow company Jamilco, which sells clothes of world brands in Russia, applied for registration of 4 trademarks at once — KIDSTUDIO, WONDERKID, WEARKIDS and MOTHERBEAR, one of which will replace the popular British brand of children's clothing Mothercare, which has left Russia. This company became one of hundreds of foreign brands that decided to leave the Russian market.
Mothercare, which has been present on the domestic market since the beginning of the 2000s, announced the suspension of its activities in Russia in March of this year. The company closed its retail stores, as well as an online store for Russians, at the end of March, and in July it announced its intention to sell the Russian business.
In August, it was said that the St. Petersburg company Crockid plans to buy Mothercare stores, which also sells children's clothing, and has even signed contracts for the purchase of two stores. But in the end, in November, it was Jamilco that became the owner of Monex Trading LLC with a 99,99% stake. After buying a children's clothing chain from Britain, the new owner planned to develop it under a local brand and open the first stores in December.
A network of 118 stores that generate 25% of global revenue
At the end of November, the stores bought by Jamilco without signs have already opened in Moscow and St. Petersburg. At that time, the chain had the working name Kids Brands, and if the assortment and quality of the goods did not change, then the price of fashionable children's clothes jumped by a third. The new owner said that he planned to first sell off the remnants of the Mothercare brand products, after which new brands would have to be attracted to the network. Besides, the company is busy looking for a new contractor — options from Turkey and China are being considered. Cooperation with the former one from Bangladesh and India has been terminated.
Prior to its sale, Monex Trading company as a subsidiary was part of Alshaya Group from Kuwait, and that, in turn, was the owner of Mothercare master franchise. At the time of the sale, the Russian retail network of the British brand of clothing for children consisted of 118 stores in 30 regions of the country, including a store in Respublika and Mega shopping in Kazan. In 2021, the revenue of the domestic network amounted to about 13 billion rubles, a loss of 243 million rubles.
At the same time, sales in the Russian market accounted for about a quarter of the brand's global revenue. Due to the withdrawal of Mothercare from Russia, the retailer's monthly losses were estimated at almost 700 thousand dollars, and after the closure of outlets, the company did not receive almost 5 million dollars.
The new owner is a retailer of brands with a 30-year history
Jamilco JSC was established almost 30 years ago and is engaged in retail clothing in specialty stores, the company has been headed by Kira Balashova since 2009. The founder of the company is Cyprus CJSC Losford Trading Ltd. It is known that for many years the company has been a retailer of the mass-market brands such as Levi's, New Balance, Wolford, Timberland, Lee Cooper and others, as well as luxury — Cerutti, Christian Dior, Hermes, Burberry, Salvatore Ferragamo and many others.
According to Rospatent, IFC Jamilco already has exclusive rights to several trademarks — some of them were registered this autumn. The fashion retailer also has 4 representative offices and branches in St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and Yekaterinburg and a network of 150 stores in major cities of the country. According to the results of its activities in 2021, the company received revenue of 11,2 billion rubles, which increased by almost 36% compared to the previous year.