'It’s possible that Leroy Merlin’s decision to invest 4 billion RUR in putting up stores in Sverdlovsk Region has been inspired by the success Auchan proved to be. They are bound to have some hard time here, though, because the region is already full of strong chain stores dealing in building materials and all the accompanying products. Besides, Castorama has been trying to enter our market as well,’ says Alexei Podolyako, CEO Alliance Independent Partnership.

As became clear from Sverdlovsk Region’s Governor’s meeting with some French entrepreneurs, Leroy Merlin is thinking of setting up outlets in Yekaterinburg, Nizhniy Tagil, Kamensk-Uralskiy, and some other regional towns.

'Our most dependable investment analysts report that Sverdlovsk Region falls short of Europe in term of the number and scale of shopping areas by 30% to 40%. The people’s income, however, is three to four times lower than in Europe, which actually means we might have too many trade centers already. We’ve been trying to bring this home to the authorities of all kinds for over a year now. If they keep welcoming every single new player, the local trade, hotel, and restaurant businesses will simply perish,’ he notes.