VkusVill closing stores in Netherlands

MOSCOW. March 4 (Interfax) - Russian retailer VkusVill is closing its stores in the Netherlands, where there are currently three VkusVill stores and a Vkus store.

"We are closing VkusVill stores in Amsterdam and selling off our products," VkusVill told Interfax.

This decision was made earlier for several stores, the press service for VkusVill said.

VkusVill opened its first store in the Netherlands in the spring of 2020. Andrei Krivenko, the company's founder and main owner, told RBC in an interview at the end of last year that the project was not successful.

"A year of operating has shown that consumers aren't interested, and even worse, they said that the products that VkusVill chooses are only eaten by old people, and young people avoid them. It's possible that we'll have to change our ingredients, for example, change our butter for margarine. Around 30% of English youth and young Europeans don't drink real milk anymore, only plant-based. It could quite easily pan out that those flavors that Western consumers choose will come to Russia in the future, but they're practically at zero here for now," Krivenko said.

The team tested various hypothesis, but there is currently no technical ability to continue operating, the press service said.

As of February, VkusVill had more than 1,300 stores in 59 cities of Russia.