As part of the bankruptcy, the brand and website of the Respublika book chain will be put up for sale. The starting price is 53.5 million rubles. The auction will take place on March 23, all assets are put in one lot.
Kazakh businessman Igor Deriglazov’s ProLife franchisee, who now runs offline stores, will be able to legally use the brand even after its sale. The new copyright holder will also have the right to launch its own bookstores under the same name, Kommersant reported.
Respublika was founded by Vadim Dymov, the owner of the Dymov food manufacturer. The company operated approximately 40 stores in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg.
The bankruptcy of the network began in November 2020. The company argued that the pandemic had caused irreparable damage to the chain’s business. However, Respublika’s troubles began earlier, its partners blaming the difficulties on aggressive growth and pressure on book retailing from online commerce.
After the bankruptcy began, the company transferred all offline points to franchisees, and since then the LLC itself has managed only one online store.
In 2019, Respublika changed its director twice in one month. Former K-Rauta and O’Key top manager Mikhail Akhmedov spent less than a month as CEO of the Respublika bookstore chain. In September, he was replaced by Ilya Timchenko, a native of the already closed companies White Wind Digital and Svyaznoy Enter. Then analysts reported that Akhmedov was unable to defend the development strategy of “Respublika” in front of the owner.
As of January 2023, Respublika has eight offline sales outlets in Moscow. They are managed by ProLife LLC. The LLC itself is 99% owned by Intel-Rual LLC, which is owned by the founder of the Kazakh holding Meloman, Igor Deriglazov.
Author:
karina pardaeva
Source: RB
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