PRESS: Owner of Lush's Russian business to shut down

MOSCOW, Jul 12 (PRIME) -- Dmitry Azarov, the manager and owner of 65% in the Russian business of U.K. cosmetics producer Lush, plans to close all 27 remaining stores, sell all stock on its website and shut down, Kommersant reported on Tuesday citing three real estate consultants.

Lush suspended shipments to Russia in March. CEO Mark Constantine told the Financial Times that the retailer wrote off the share in Russian business, which, together with the Ukrainian unit, accounted for about 2% in revenue of Lush.

A source close to the Russian division told Kommersant that Lush could not organize imports to Russia even through non-official distributors, because the brand owner deals only with its partners. The last batch purchased for Russia remains stuck in Riga.

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