French clothing brands Sandro and Maje intend to leave Russia.

The clothing brands Sandro and Maje of the French Groupe SMCP intend to leave the Russian market. This was revealed by a top manager of one of the retailers familiar with the situation, and confirmed by four shopkeepers in Moscow.

The company has already closed a few boutiques, and only the effective outlets are still open. The departure of brands will not affect the market as they are not that big and well known in Russia, most experts think. Their place will be taken by the company’s other brands — Claudie Pierlot and Fursac.

“The employees of these stores started to come to us. They reported that the brand is leaving the market, some of the stores are closing. It is likely that the brands will work until the end of the season,” said one of the top managers.

Sandro and Maje came to Russia in 2014.

They are among the first European brands operating in the Middle-up segment (the lower end of the premium price segment) with a strong design identity.

**In Russia**, the focus was on the development of Sandro and Maje, because these brands have a young target audience, interesting design and high quality, which can be compared to Dior and Chanel.

“Maje has had no deliveries for the last couple of months and there are no plans yet. Boutiques will continue to work, but they will sell clothes of brands Claudie Pierlot and Fursac”, — one of the sellers of Maje store told “Izvestiya”.

Now outlets will be selling leftovers, and then will bring in goods of other brands. After the departure of Sandro and Maje, most likely, the stores will change format from mono-brand to multi-brand. However, the brands were not popular in Russia and, most likely, they would have left the Russian market sooner or later anyway, experts say.