Children's store Smyk hits Russia

The children's clothing store Smyk owned by the Empik Group Media & Fashion (EM7F) is set to enter the Russian market. According to Dziennik the EM&F company bought up 99 percent of the Cyprian Prolex Services, a share holder in the Smyk-Rus company. The first Smyk shops are to open by the end of the year in Russia. The Russian market will not be the first international market into which Smyk enters. Autumn 2006 saw Smyk open its stores in the Ukraine. The company purchased Kiev's Paritet Servis Retail, which ran two children's stores trading under Kinderland, for $5 mln. Currently the company is developing in the Ukraine and trading under the brand name of Smyk. There are four Smyk shops in the Ukraine at the moment. Official company plans are to expand to 20 shops between 2008 and 2010, with new leases being signed. Smyk also wants to open its more stores in Germany. The first shop was opened in 2006 in Berlin in the Das Schloss shopping center. Currently there are three Smyk stores in Western Europe. The EM&F group owns over 435 stores in Poland, Russia, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and in Germany. Sixty-four of these are clothes stores in Russia, once owned by Maratex, which now belongs to EM&F.