Squeezed out like Lime: the retailer has stopped development until 2027
The Russian fashion retailer Lime, which actively occupied the market after the departure of the Spanish Zara, began to optimize its business, Izvestia found out. The company has refused to open new stores until 2027. Instead of further expansion, she focused on improving the efficiency of the existing network by revising the format of individual outlets and their management structure. Staff reductions have already taken place in Orenburg, Chelyabinsk and Perm. Experts note that the brand has so far failed to occupy the Zara niche, as well as to interest consumers in large store formats in the regions. Izvestia investigated what was happening to one of the leaders of the fashion industry.
Why Lime refused to expand further
Lime has decided to abandon the opening of new stores until 2027, a consultant in the retail real estate market cooperating with the brand, as well as a source in the company, told Izvestia. According to the source, the retailer is reviewing staffing at individual outlets. If it does not reach the planned targets, the management reduces the number of staff and changes the management structure. In particular, the positions of directors can be transformed into positions of commercial managers. At the same time, new vacancies do not open in such stores. Points in Perm, Orenburg and Chelyabinsk have already faced similar measures, he said. The company's CEO, Evgeny Mastyugin, did not respond to questions from Izvestia. A representative of the retailer also refrained from commenting.
Lime was founded in 2008 by Samara businessman Dmitry Khokhlov. The businessman also remains the sole beneficiary of the operating legal entity of Stil Trade LLC, as follows from the data of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Today, the company has 69 stores in Russia, as well as in Dubai, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Belarus. Until 2022, Lime remained a fast-growing but niche Russian brand in the mid-price segment. The situation changed after the departure of the Spanish Inditex group, which manages Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Pull & Bear. The vacated premises in large shopping malls allowed the retailer to dramatically accelerate expansion and occupy some of the most liquid retail space.
Since 2023, the brand has launched a men's and children's clothing line. Since the same year, the company began opening large—format (family) outlets - from 2 thousand square meters. m. And the first flagship boutique with a retail area of about 3 thousand square meters. m. opened in July 2024 on Kuznetsky Bridge on the site of the Nike store. Flagships of up to 4 thousand square meters also appeared in the capital's Aviapark, Metropolis, European shopping centers and the St. Petersburg Gallery.
This strategy allowed Lime to become one of the main beneficiaries of the departure of Western fashion brands, Olga Sumishevskaya, a partner at the One Story consulting company, recalled. Already in 2022, Style Trade LLC earned 10 billion rubles, and in 2023 it doubled revenue to 20 billion, in 2024 to 34 billion (+66% year-on-year). By the end of 2025, growth slowed to 25% (43 billion rubles), although net profit increased 2.2 times year-on-year, to 4.5 billion, according to the company's RAS reports.
The attempt to scale large-format stores in the regions did not meet the company's expectations, a consultant in the commercial real estate market told Izvestia. According to him, large retail spaces turned out to be less in demand, and their maintenance was difficult in terms of payback, the source explained. Therefore, by the end of 2025, the company began to develop a concept of a smaller format of 1.2–1.5 thousand square meters. m. It was assumed that the first such points would open in 2026. However, the company subsequently abandoned these plans, the source added. The new market model was already "almost ready" for launch, but the brand postponed it due to a number of concerns, including difficulties in attracting debt financing.
Today, Lime, instead of increasing the number of stores, focuses on the efficiency of the existing network, according to a top manager of a competitor company. In his opinion, this is a normal practice in the context of changing customer behavior patterns. The stage of aggressive expansion cannot continue indefinitely, agrees Vladislava Brillyan, Senior Consultant at CMWP Retail Real Estate Department. According to her, optimization becomes a stage of business stabilization after a period of intense growth. Therefore, today retailers are increasingly paying attention to the profitability of the locations of each outlet, adds Olga Sumishevskaya. At the same time, the revision of positions is part of the clustering of processes that are unlikely to significantly affect the operation of retail facilities, she added.
Demoting managers instead of cutting them is one of the tools for optimizing the retail network, says Anna Lebsak—Kleimans, CEO of Fashion Consulting Group (FCG). According to her, companies can consolidate areas of responsibility, reduce management levels and combine administrative and commercial functions. Such decisions are most often made when stores are closed or the economy of a regional network is being reviewed, the expert said.
Why it is still difficult for Russian brands to follow the path of Zara
The situation is similar to the one experienced by Zara after the coronavirus pandemic, said a former employee of its Russian division. In 2020, Inditex announced the closure of about 1.2 thousand small stores and focused on the development of large flagships and digital sales, investing about €2.7 billion in them. The new concept focused on increasing the productivity of each retail facility. Apparently, the Russian brand is currently undergoing such a stage of transformation, the Izvestia interlocutor suggested.
In this case, it is possible to compare Lime with the development of Zara only with certain reservations, Vladislava Brillian objected. According to her, the success of the Spanish brand was ensured not only by the scale of the network, but also by its operating model — high speed of updating collections, efficient logistics, uniform store standards and recognizable positioning. At the same time, for Russian players, the expansion of the network by itself does not guarantee the same result. To do this, it is necessary to build a full-fledged operational chain, which is extremely difficult to reproduce in a short time, she believes.
At the same time, the growth potential of Russian clothing and footwear brands remains, Olga Sumishevskaya is sure. According to her, it is difficult to replace the completely gone Zara, but domestic brands can still occupy their niche. To do this, they need to work on product quality, increase consumer loyalty to the brand, and update collection lines on time.
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