German fashion house Hugo Boss has completed the sale of its Russian business. Its new owner is the company “Stockmann”. The amount of the deal has not been disclosed. This reports DW.
According to information from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the company “Stockmann” owns 100% of OOO “Hugo Boss Rus” worth 40 million rubles.
At the end of April, Hugo Boss agreed to sell its Russian business with the Russian government. Russian authorities require Western companies to provide a mandatory 50% discount when selling Russian assets to foreigners and an additional 15% contribution to the budget.
According to Reuters, the deal was closed on August 2. One of the conditions of the sale was the preservation of all jobs.
Following the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Hugo Boss closed its stores in Russia, as well as suspended online sales on the Russian market and stopped advertising.
Against the backdrop of sanctions for Russia’s attack on Ukraine, many Western companies announced that they were suspending operations in the Russian market or leaving completely. One of these companies was the German concern Volkswagen, which announced its withdrawal from Russia several weeks after the Russian army invaded Ukraine. A year later, the company sold its plant in Kaluga for 160 million euros.
However, as the publication writes The Timein early June 2024, Volkswagen actually returned to the Russian market, starting sales of cars under the Jetta brand. These are redesigned analogues of the original models, which are produced by the Chinese concern FAW from German components. Jetta has long been imported to Russia under the parallel import program, but a few weeks ago, Jetta Motors, according to Die Zeit, informed Russian business media about the official launch.
Volkswagen itself said that it knows nothing about business in Russia. However, as the publication emphasizes, this “doesn’t seem very plausible.”
Before the war, Volkswagen employed four thousand people in Russia, and the German concern’s investments in production amounted to two billion euros.
