It is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and an exciting marketplace for any consumer brand, but expanding into Russia can be a daunting task for even the biggest retailers.

Triplar drew on its resources and expertise to help Nike do just that when it helped the company open its first factory outlets in the country.

The three stores presented a particular set of logistical barriers, with transport, logistics and cultural differences at the top of the agenda.

Import and export procedures when dealing with Russian customs presented the first major challenge. All items needed to be weighed in advance of the shipment to produce a pallet-by-pallet packing list, and all materials needed to be coded and shipped by type of material. The team then sent invoices with the shipments that allocated a value to the goods on the pallet according to the weight and cost of each item. They also had to show the country of origin for all products – which wasn’t easy as many of the items were from different countries.

To deal with these issues, the company sent a supervisor to the store to oversee the installation by working closely with the local team. A Russian speaker and an official translator were also employed to ensure things ran smoothly on site.

The results were impressive: there were no issues with customs clearance and the store opened on time.

Triplar project manager James Freeman said any errors or oversights in this process would have meant delays and increased costs: “The team did a first class job and overcame a few tricky challenges. We had to be scrupulously accurate in every way to ensure the project went off without a hitch. Entering the Russian retail market is an objective for many retailers, many of whom think it is too difficult to attempt. We showed that it can be done.”