Russia's Euroset plans ambitious expansion

Euroset, the fastest growing mobile retailer in Russia, has revealed that is planning an MVNO strategy both inside and outside of the company’s domestic market.

The firm argues that it is bigger and in better shape than Carphone Warehouse – which claims it is the UK’s largest retailer – has also revealed it intends to take on the Indian market as part of an ambitious expansion proposal.

“The MVNO project is awaiting approval of the Russian Ministry of Communications, but at the same time we are working on establishing hosting outside of Russia, for example, in Ukraine we are in talks with Golden Telecom,” Evgeny Chichvarkin, founder of Euroset, told telecoms.com.

In 1997 Russian entrepreneurs Chichvarkin and his friend Timur Artemiev installed their first retail outlet for mobile phone services and accessories in Moscow. With mobile penetration in Russia surpassing the 100 per cent mark this quarter, Euroset’s fortunes have grown hand in hand with recent gains in the region’s prosperity, not least the Russian peoples’ appetite for all things wireless. Over the past few years, the company has accelerated the expansion of its retail operation beyond Moscow to regional Russia.

Euroset’s retail network has grown to over 4400 retail outlets in the seven countries in the CIS and three Baltic state outlets. Euroset enjoyed growth in revenues from $300m in 2004 to $3bn in 2005.

Chichvarkin told Telecoms.com that the company’s year-end plans are to be in every republic of the former USSR, including the Baltics.

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