‘Our sales decreased a little bit in September-December 2009, but they started to reach the earlier volumes in January 2010,’ Director of Frey Wille’s Yekaterinburg branch Larissa Kuyantseva said to UrBC.

‘Speaking of last year as a whole, we can definitely say the economic recession did not affect our jewellery shop. Moreover, we did not experience any serious selling difficulties until September 2009. Frey Wille even expanded its business in October 2009 by trying to reach a new audience: namely, we set up a new shop in Europe Trade & Business Center,’ Kuyantseva added.

‘This business expansion did pose some risks, as our two outlets are now quite close to one another: one shop is located in Tikhvin Club House, another one in Europe Mall. However, the customers coming to the unit in Sacco & Vanzetti St. are mainly interested in gold-plated jewellery, whereas those shopping in our Lenin Ave. outlet mostly buy gold items. Certain shoppers sometimes make incidental purchases worth over 100,000 RUR, while an average sum of the purchase comes to about 30,000 RUR,’ Ms Kuyantseva said.