The white goods and consumer electronics chain store intends to halve the number of the hypermarkets run in the Russian regions; the shopping space thus made available will probably be sub-leased in order to cut back on expenses. Unprofitable shops might be closed down altogether, RBC daily reports.

Nevertheless, Technosila is still hoping to reduce its spending in some other ways. A few real estate agencies informed RBC daily that the company was going to cut its shopping space in provinces from 4,500 sq m to 2,200 sq m. Technosila did admit it had halved the area of one of its Ryazan-based hypermarkets, closed down a hypermarket in Tolyatti, and froze a shop in Kurgan until summer.

‘We are not planning on closing or reducing our other hypermarkets,’ said the electronic goods chain’s Vice President for Strategy Leonid Tyukavkin.

The chain currently operates three hypermarkets in Yekaterinburg.