Drop point: Stockmann to close up to five department stores during the year
One of the largest Russian fashion retailers in the mid-price and premium segments has started business optimization. As Izvestia found out, Stockmann plans to close up to five department stores over the next 12 months — almost 20% of its own network. According to the experts interviewed, this reflects the general market situation. Against the background of declining demand for clothing, rising operating costs and reduced attendance at shopping malls, companies are increasingly abandoning further expansion, closing unprofitable stores and reviewing development strategies. According to the Fashion Consulting Group, by the middle of 2026, more than 60% of market participants have already started closing inefficient outlets. About how the clothing and footwear market is changing and what consumers can expect is in the Izvestia article.
Why are retailers closing stores
Stockmann plans to close up to five department stores over the next 12 months, a source familiar with its plans and an interlocutor at the retailer told Izvestia. According to the latter, the department store in Novosibirsk has already stopped working, and the store in Perm will close in the spring of 2027. Both facilities were opened in 2023 and occupied more than 1.7 thousand square meters each. There will also be "a couple more closures," the Izvestia source in the company added, without specifying details. There are no plans to open new department stores in the foreseeable future, he noted.
At the same time, according to him, the company is thinking about the possibility of launching a department store in the Olympic shopping center under construction in Moscow (its commissioning is scheduled for 2027). The retailer currently has 28 stores. Thus, we are talking about the closure of almost 18% of retail outlets. A representative of the retailer did not respond to a request from Izvestia.
Stockmann specializes in the sale of clothing, shoes, goods for children and at home. The company represents more than 700 brands in the country in the mid-price and premium segments, including Guess, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Levi's, Furla, and others. The first corner was opened in 1989 by Finnish Stockmann. In 2015, she sold the Russian business to entrepreneur Yakov Panchenko with the right to use the brand. By the end of 2025, Stockmann's revenue increased by 9% year-on-year, to 24.8 billion rubles, while net loss increased by 26%, to 1.8 billion rubles, according to RAS reports.
The closure of stores depends, among other things, on the conditions that the landlords are willing to offer, a company source said. But sometimes a point of sale turns out to be so unprofitable that no discount will help, he added. According to him, large department stores require significant costs for the maintenance and storage of a large volume of goods, but with low sales such a model becomes economically unprofitable.
The situation in some department stores has worsened due to disruptions in the supply of clothing and shoes, an employee of one of them said. In particular, in the spring of 2026, Stockmann was unable to continue supplying German Adidas products to Russia through the United Arab Emirates due to the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. As a result, it was impossible to deliver the cargo to the UAE and export it from there to the Russian Federation, the company said in its explanatory note to the financial statements. However, these circumstances are not related to the decision to close the stores, a source in the retailer assures Izvestia.
What happens to clothing and shoe sellers
The retail real estate market is stagnating: there is no mass expansion of brands, and new discoveries are spot-on, said Evgenia Khakberdieva, Regional Director of the Retail Real Estate Department at NF Group. By mid-2026, about 60% of retailers in the clothing and footwear segment of the top 100 largest brands are facing a reduction in the number of stores, agrees Anna Lebsak-Kleimans, CEO of Fashion Consulting Group (FCG). The share of those who have closed outlets has more than doubled the share of those who continue to open new ones (23%), according to FCG data. Today, the main priority for most chains is not expanding their presence, but improving the efficiency of existing stores, she noted.
Many chains continue to optimize their business and do not exclude that this process will last in 2027, said Zulfiya Shilyaeva, Senior Director and head of CMWP's retail real estate department. In her opinion, this is facilitated by a slowdown in the economy, a slow reduction in the key interest rate, the flow of customers to marketplaces and an increased trend towards rational consumption, in which buyers are increasingly price-oriented and reducing the number of impulse purchases.
According to analysts at the Check Index of the OFD Platform, in January –June, the number of purchases of clothing and shoes decreased by 10% year-on-year, while the median cost of a check increased by 7%, to 3,129 rubles. At the same time, the situation in the middle-up segment remains the most difficult, Zulfiya Shilyaeva noted. According to her, the decline in demand from the middle class, the high sensitivity of buyers to rising prices and increased operating costs force players such as Stockmann to consider further business optimization.
At the same time, according to the expert, so far the fuel crisis has not had a noticeable impact on prices in the fashion segment. Although an increase in operating expenses may lead to an increase in the future, she admitted. In the event that this happens, the market will risk facing a new decline in customer traffic, Zulfiya Shilyaeva suggested. According to Focus Technologies, by July 2026, the average daily audience of shopping malls in Russia was about 25-27% lower than in 2019.
In the second half of the year, retailers will continue to review their presence strategies — to close unprofitable outlets, reduce the number of stores and open only in locations with stable pedestrian traffic, Evgenia Khakberdieva believes. According to the results of the first half of 2026, vacancy in key shopping malls in Moscow amounted to 6.4%, and by the end of the year the figure may reach 8%, NF Group expects. Optimization of networks, primarily in the clothing and footwear segment, will remain the main driver of growth, Evgenia Khakberdieva believes.
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