Wael Malik, RAVIN: We are looking capacities for the clothing production in Ukraine

The brand Ravin Jeans general director in Ukraine − about plans for the clothing production in the country, online-sales and store chain further development.

The Egyptian clothing brand Ravin Jeans entered the Ukrainian market quite recently – in early 2016. Then the company “Anna Malik”, which is engaged in the brand development in Ukraine, opened a store in one of the most popular in the country – the capital’s SEC Ocean Plaza. More recently, the Ravin chain has been replenished with two more outlets in the capital, and also it started to master the online-sales channel, having established cooperation with the largest Ukrainian fashion segment online-store − modnaKasta. Vael’ Malik, the Ravin Jeans company-representative CEO in Ukraine, spoke in an interview for rau.ua about the difficulties that the brand faced in Ukraine, as well as plans to organize the clothing production in the country and further chain development.

− Earlier Ravin planned to open about 15 stores by the end of 2017. Are these plans relevant?

− Now we have three retail outlets in Kiev. In addition to the store in the SEC Ocean Plaza, in early April we opened new facilities in Sky Mall and Art Mall. We are also negotiating for a few more objects. We have the subject dialogue with the SEC Pyramid, Dream Town and Lavina Mall. We considered also and other shopping centers, but some did not fit the rent cost, others did not meet our requirements.

Now we are continuing the search and by the year end we are planning to open at least three more retail outlets in Kiev.

However, there are to reach the indicator in 15 outlets before the year end, most likely, will not succeed.

− Do you are opening while only in the capital? Do you not plan to develop in other Ukrainian cities?

− The entering in the regions is in the company plans. But we want to gain a foothold in Kiev first of all. After opening 6-7 stores here, we will look and at other cities. Already now we have invitations from major shopping centers in Kharkov, Dnipro, Odessa and Lvov. However, large-scale expansion requires considerable time and resources, recruitment, a logistics system development, etc. Now we have other priorities − the position strengthening in the capital and the online direction developing.

− Do you consider the promising for development only the cities with a one million population?

− Not only. In Ukraine there are many other interesting cities for the development. For example, there is Zhytomyr with a 300 000 people population and only one quality shopping center − Global. Of course, the people solvency in Zhytomyr is less than in cities with a population of more than one million people, but not just city residents, but the entire region are buying up in Global. And these people go there purposefully for shopping, which provides a high conversion. The same can be said about Chernigov with the Hollywood shopping center. And both cities are convenient in logistics terms, since it is located not far from Kiev. Therefore, it is possible that the expansion into the regions will begin with the settlements close to the capital.

Business in Ukraine

− You entered the Ukrainian market in early 2016. Are you satisfied with the work first year results in the country? With what problems did you encounter?

− When we started working in Ukraine, we were sure that in the first year we can achieve worthy indicators. But, frankly, not everything was as good as we expected, and it’s not even a crisis, but the fact that initially we did not adapt our products to Ukraine.

Now we are working on this: we are developing collections specifically for the Ukrainian market and already in the winter-2017 season we are going to present it to our customers. We are planning significantly to increase our sales due to this. In general, we are pleased with the work first year results, but I am sure that Ravin brand can be even more successful in Ukraine, so we are continuing to develop and have already approved a strategic development plan for the next five years.

Another the Ukrainian market prospects confirmation is interest from other Arab companies. Already, there is a several Egyptian brands substantive interest in entering the Ukrainian market.

Now we are negotiating with these companies and already in 2017 we are planning to enter it into the country. Therefore, most likely, soon we will develop in Ukraine stores and other Egyptian clothing brands.

− It is said constantly n Ukraine about the bad business climate, corruption and pressure on the business by the state. Did you not have to deal with this?

− No. RAVIN works in Ukraine officially, officially pays salaries and transfers taxes, so there were no complaints against us from the state authorities, and it could not be. We respect your country and we want to create a good reputation not only for our company, but for the Egyptian business as a whole. The bribes were also not given to anyone and no one demanded, so for now, we have no complaints about the state.

Moreover, when we had problems with registering the cash register, we asked the tax authorities to speed up the process and we met to meet this problem as quickly as possible. Therefore, it is now difficult for me to say why many believe that it is difficult to conduct business in Ukraine. It seems to me that it is much easier to register a company and conduct business here than in the same Egypt.

− Where do you create your products?

− Now we make clothes in Egypt, India and China. However, the production volumes are growing from year to year. Annually about 2000 new clothes models are added. Now there is children’s collection in the development −- this is a completely new direction for the company. In particular, RAVIN has developed a new store format due to the expansion of the range. Very soon we will open a retail outlet with a square of ​​1650 sq. m in Cairo. We also plan to present children’s clothes in Ukraine. In general, our range and sales volumes are growing, so we are constantly looking for opportunities to expand production.

− Do you not thought about starting your production in Ukraine?

− In Ukraine we are already looking for a partner − a factory that can sew off for us about 5,000 items a month. We need a reliable partner with large capacities, which the good quality products necessary volumes will be able to produce at reasonable prices and in time.

In future, we want to sell products manufactured in Ukraine not only inside the country, but also exported to Egypt.

At the same time, we are ready to furnish to the partner all the necessary materials − fabric, accessories, threads, etc. We import them from Egypt, China and Bangladesh.

−  Do you plan to conduct advertising campaigns aimed at brand promoting in Ukraine?

− We are considering such options, but so far no final decisions have been made. First of all, we are working on the price and our clothes availability for the Ukrainian consumer. Large marketing costs will further put pressure on the price, but we would not like it. Therefore, large-scale advertising campaigns are not planned yet.

Online-acquaintance

− You said that one of the priorities in Ukraine is the online-direction development. What are you doing in this direction?

− First, we are working on the Arabic version site adapting to the Ukrainian audience and in the future we are planning to arrange sales through the online- store. But we will also have to recruit additional staff for this, develop own logistics, etc. In respect, that we are developing offline-retail in parallel and designing new collections for the Ukrainian market, the online-store launch has gone so far to the background.

To a greater extent, we are developing the online-direction through cooperation with the shopping club modnaKasta.

This is the largest online-segment fashion store in Ukraine with large sales volumes, steep advertising campaigns and a wide audience. The cooperation first results are very satisfied with modnaKasta, so now we are deepening our cooperation. For example, we began to photograph our new collections in the company production-studio, and earlier it was done in Egypt and China.

− What sales share does provide the online direction to you in Ukraine?

− In respect, that until recently we had only one store, online-sales accounted for about 50%. But the online-development gives us not only additional sales, but also the our product popularization throughout Ukraine. ModnaKasta is national scale online-store, in which clothes are bought by the country all regions residents. We will be able to introduce Ukrainians to our brand through cooperation with it. Thus, when we will ready to develop in the regions, we will already have our own loyal audience.

− Did you not consider cooperation with other online sites?

− We are negotiating with many online-retailers. Some sites do not provide its own logistics, which it is still a problem for us. The cooperation terms and the requirements for the goods volume did not match in other online-stores. So for now, we decided to focus on partnership with modnaKasta. And in the future – we will expand our representation in online.

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