Source: The Guardian
On Friday, June 3, the Russian reseller of toymaker Lego stated that it was set to temporarily shut down some of its shops in Russia. Clearly, this comes following the wide range of sanctions that the West have imposed on Moscow because of the military assault on Ukraine by Russia. These imposed restrictions and sanctions have significantly hit the toymaker’s supply network.
‘World of Cubes’ is one of the biggest certified networks in Russia for the sale of LEGO designers. Crucially, it made the announcement which specified how the network is set to close some of its stores in the country. Evidently, this is owing to suspension of deliveries of sets from LEGO which started in early March this year, following start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since this juncture, the company has conducted all its operations on stock.
The local reseller informed its clients about the suspension in an official email viewed by concerned authorities. In the email, it specified how the Russian supplies of lego had been halted for the mean time, and that they continue its operation only on their local stocks. Moreover, they noted how circumstances leading to this issue had led to them ‘temporarily freezing’ the operation of some of their stores in the country.
In connection with this, we are temporarily freezing the work of some stores.”
About a couple of months ago, Lego had stated that it putting a pause on it Russian shipment owing to serious disruption emerging from Russia’s ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine. Notably, the company has about 81 stores in the country, and the operations of these stores are handled by the Inventive Retail Group. Currently, it is still unclear as to exactly how many of these stores were shut down. However, the company expects to reopen most of them in the future.
For a while now, the sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West have led to the disruption of the operations of various businesses in the country. Owing to these restrictions, overseas companies have either decided to permanently shut down their businesses in the country or just temporarily halt them till they find an alternative.
Among various tech companies and restaurant chains, retails giants like Lego itself have suspended their operations in Russia. These include Spanish retailer Zara, and its rival H&M, along with it, brewers such as Carlsberg and Heineken since the initiation of the military assault in Ukraine.
