Fashion & apparel retailers hit hard by economic crisis

The Chief of the European Fashion and Textile Export Council, Mr Reinhard Doepfer has said that there is a likelihood that nearly 33 percent of the 42,000 retailers in Russia could go bust by the end of this year.

This has come about due to a tightening in consumer spending by the Russian consumer after the economic crisis hit the country last year. This is also expected to have an impact on European fashion clothing suppliers.

Experts from Russia have however hit back by saying that the figure for shutdown quoted by Doepfer is too high and though a few retailers are making adjustments by closing unviable store outlets, the closure figure may be closer to 10-15 percent.

Germany is the second largest fashion clothing exporter after Italy amongst the countries of the European Union and has seen sales of fashion clothing to Russia take a hit in dipping by 6 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

German suppliers expect sales to dip by at least 30 percent in the autumn-winter season in exports to Russia and the entire East European region. Russian GDP shrank by 9.8 percent in first quarter of 2009.