On the meeting with Grigory Kozhemyakin we agreed at a restaurant in the "Moscow City". Seeing me, Kozhemyakin closed the book - a novel, a fantasy "construction of the century" by Sergei Lukyanenko. "How many great features for the builder lies in the finishing works, understand the man who a profession is often not capable of", - quotes Kozhemyakin Lukyanenko. - It's just about us! "

The last ten years of a businessman fighting for the survival of his two companies, related to the sale of materials for the construction and repair. One could not save the business: in 2014 a network of "Old Hottabych", positioned as a premium, which Kozhemyakin developed together with its partners, has gone bankrupt. I have some difficulty with the second project that Gregory develops already alone - revenue "Stroydepo" ceased to grow unabated. Demand for building materials market fell by 8% in 2016, calculated at the agency «INFOLine-Analytics".

"I'm in his place would have long given up, - says former co-owner" Starik Hottabych "Arthur Popelnyuhov. - A Gregory fights like a frog from a children's fairy tale that was drowning, but the whipped butter. "

In 2017 Kozhemyakin intend to reformat the shops network "Stroydepo" in the "School of repair" and run on the basis of their interactive platform for customers making repairs.

"Stroydepo" in numbers:

0.7% - the share of that company, according to its calculations, takes on the Russian market

13-14 thousand. Items in the store range

70% Federal providers of local 30%

60-65% of visitors - men

75-80 thousand. Rub. per month - revenue per square meter

- The average bill

2 thousand. Visitors per day is usually attends "Stroydepo"

The wizard has departed

Three former co-owners of "The Old Man Hottabych" - Grigory Kozhemyakin, Arthur Popelnyuhov and Igor Sosin - together graduated from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys. In early 1990 the partners sold wholesale floor covering in the regions. With the money opened in 1994 in Moscow the first "Old Hottabych" - supermarket premium building materials. In the 2000s, the network has grown to 40 stores. The average size was about 1.5 thousand sq. M. m, and the range of products for the repair had about 5 thousand. items, revenues in 2007 reached 5.3 billion rubles.

Igor Sosin offers partners to learn more scale format - hypermarkets of building materials in the areas of 10 thousand sq. M. m. At the moment in Russia this format was not there, but the idea is not supported by Igor partners. Then, in 2003, Sosin left the "Hottabych" and began to compete with former partners. He created JV "hand made" with the German retailer OBI hypermarket and engaged in the development of products for the house and repair in the Moscow region. From this project, he was released only in June 2016 - OBI bought the 49 percent stake Sosina. Director General of the agency «INFOLine-Analytics" Mikhail Burmistrov estimated the deal at 10 billion rubles.

By 2013, the turnover of "The Old Man Hottabych" fell to 2.3 billion rubles, the bankruptcy procedure commenced in 2014, and the last store network was closed in mid-2015. The major causes of the sad ending, said Kozhemyakin, there were two. Firstly, the company has initially chosen the wrong strategy and began to buy property in which shops were located. It is not allowed to develop quickly, and opened stores in most not-through locations. Secondly, in Russia there were strong western network - Leroy Merlin, Castorama and OBI.

After the bankruptcy of the network Popelnyuhov Arthur also went out of business and has focused exclusively on real estate, renting commercial and office space in Moscow and the region. «DIY-market (Do It Yourself,« do it yourself. "- RBC) with a roar coming down, why should I do it? - Says Popelnyuhov. - We are with Gregory for 49 years, it's time to think about a calm meditative life. But Gregory behaves as a young and angry businessman throws a new element. It's amazing! "

Market repair

According to «INFOLine-analysts" on the results of 2015 the volume of Russian market of household goods and repairs decreased by 4.89% and amounted to 1.46 trillion rubles. The fall in sales recorded for the first time since 2009. Projected to continue and reach 8% by the end of the year in 2016-m drop in sales volumes. This is due to the reduction of the input mass and low-rise housing.

On January 1, 2016 employed 383 construction hypermarket total trade area of ​​more than 2.7 million square meters in Russia. M. For comparison: on 1 January 2015 there were 368 total approximately 2.6 million square meters. m. In total, the Russian market has about 1 thousand. universal and specialized networks. In the top 10 largest retailers accounted for more than 23% of the market. Among the leaders - Leroy Merlin, OBI, Castorama, «Home Centre", "K-rauta", "Petrovich", "Maxidom", "Dobrostroy", "Baucenter".

"Crawl forward"

In fact, Kozhemyakin was the alternate. Back in 2006, he began to develop a network of regional economy "Stroydepo" working in the shop-warehouse format. The calculation was simple: run the project away from the shops of the main competitor, Leroy Merlin, in a half million-cities. In those years, the Russian market of retail trade of goods for home repair and actively build momentum: it was $ 14 billion in the next increased by 10% in 2006. Network shops taken share from construction markets - Kozhemyakin offered customers something between these formats.

The idea of ​​the project came up with the Frenchman Marc Henry, once worked in a major European Real Networks. The prototype for the "Stroydepo" served other French network - Brico Depot. Henry has adapted its business model to Russia. Bets placed on shop-warehouse model - a relatively new format for the DIY-market.

The first store "Stroydepo" opened in Izhevsk, the capital of Udmurtia. . With a large range, about 13 thousand items, it allows to save on staff - that sell cement, bricks, many sales consultants do not. "If the" Hottabych "was like" ABC taste ", then" Stroydepo "- is a" Magnet "- Kozhemyakin said. The average size of stores was not more than 500 square meters. m. The basis of the range, up to 40%, accounted for building materials. Inside the store was a special unheated area - there you can stop by the car. About 70% of all goods provided federal providers, 30% - local (brick, cement, dry mix), familiar to local buyers. "For its time, it was a breakthrough project, he tried to give the market something that was not yet", - said Arthur Popelnyuhov.

Soon the network has experienced the first major crisis when the then CEO Dmitry Timanov decided to transform the format to a more "soft", adding to the range of chandeliers and plumbing. The maneuver was unsuccessful. "Instead of trading, we are a few months engaged in the reconstruction of stores, changing the layout", - says Kozhemyakin. Sales began to fall dramatically. "By 2009, it seemed to me that nothing in the world will not be able to save" Stroydepo "- says Popelnyuhov. - Yes, and nobody believed then in his salvation, including myself. "

In summer 2009, Kozhemyakin asked Popelnyuhova advice, they went to the shops Noginsk and Kaluga. "Gregory then asked me:" What do I do? ". I thought only that it would be necessary to close the project cheaper, "- says Arthur.

Kozhemyakin, who has five children, then just going to build a new home and saved money. Did not work out - to save the company, he has invested in "Stroydepo" all funds intended for the purchase of a house. "If Gregory did not," Stroydepo "is simply not there, - says Popelnyuhov. - At a critical moment, he is able to put everything at stake. "

Kozhemyakin fired several key managers, including the director general, and the year personally ruled the network - to establish pricing, re-build relationships with suppliers to return to the format of the discounter. The number of suppliers increased from 190 to 250. To force partners to fulfill contracts on time, penalties applied. Change Marketing - changed the agency began to release promotional newspaper for example OBI.

One of the former employees' Stroydepo "recalls that this strategy is beginning to bear fruit quickly:" We began to sell in an hour as screwdrivers, as usually in the past month. " According to Mikhail Burmistrov, 2011 DIY market grew by 20.3% (compared to 2010), and turnover "Stroydepo" increased by more than 45%, to 2.1 billion rubles.

Now a network of 14 stores. By 2014, revenues reached 4.5 billion rubles, profit 18.6 million and has since ceased to grow -. Said the drop in demand. The company brings a small profit, but the fact that the return on investment, in Kozhemyakin decades away. "Now they do not have the purchasing mass, the volume of trade. They spend too much time searching for the format, and when he groped for too long experimented "- Popelnyuhov said.

Trying to "get away from Leroy», too, eventually failed: the main competitor like pursues network by opening stores in smaller cities. For example, today "Stroydepo" intersects with Leroy Merlin in Tula. In 2017, Leroy has announced the opening of 13 to 20 stores, including in the cities web presence Kozhemyakin.

One of the former employees of the "Hottabych", who wished to remain anonymous, described as a man Kozhemyakin "very stubborn let everything collapsing, but he still will be the last effort to crawl forward." In Kozhemyakin new idee fixe - in 2017 it is going to turn "Stroydepo" in the "Repair School" Samodelkin ".

Repair without stress

"When you want to change something in my life, people pay money and have fun, but not in the case of repairs, - says Kozhemyakin. - You begin to repair - prepare for war: with family, with work, with the superintendent. Our task - to help people make the repairs without the stress. "

The idea is this - people are coming into the building is not so much shopping item, how much for the help of specialists. Therefore, the sellers in the "diy" have become experts on repair - their job is to help with the design, estimate calculation, choice of materials. Offline Store should be part of an interactive platform with representation in social networks - Kozhemyakin wants to create a club for enthusiastic people repair. "We even accountants need to understand the repair. In our company all passionate about this, "- said Kozhemyakin. Now this area is tested in Tula.

The trouble is that in this direction Leroy Merlin comes on the heels. The shops of Rostov, Kazan and Ufa Leroy has already launched "Repair School": in a specially equipped premises wishing to demonstrate how to hang wallpaper, tiles laid and poured self-leveling floor. There are master classes and workshops. At the same time last summer family quest "The Price of repair" held in Leroy. The project is in demand, the quest for a couple of months have been more than 488 people, officials say Leroy Merlin.

We have to by Leroy - different concepts, according Kozhemyakin: "Our client might not know what exactly he wants - he thinks he has come to the store for tiles, but in fact it is necessary not only tile, but also garbage bags, plaster, gloves, a broom and dustpan. And repairman and designer. When you buy a tile - and think about the rest, too. It is in this manner we will work. "

"The idea is not bad, - admits director of marketing for STD" Petrovich "Igor Kolynin. - But there are risks. The project, created a new type of demand, usually "shoot" in the presence of a very large audience. If you have a relatively small business, using such tools is quite difficult. People come into the store building, oddly enough, to buy construction materials. And not to participate in the intriguing experiments. " Arthur Popelnyuhov convinced that his former partner chose the correct format: "Repair School" - is one hundred percent hit in the market. "

Experiments - expensive pleasure. Kozhemyakin plans to invest in the development of the format "Samodelkin" another 10 million rubles .: money needed to replace signage, advertising campaign, the development of teaching methods, training, transformation of stores to the new format.

In total Kozhemyakin invested in "Stroydepo" nearly $ 40 million. When will be able to get them back, he did not even thinks of ten years. Twin Popelnyuhovym in suburban Vidnoe had registered LLC "Golden Jasmine", the proceeds of which, according to SPARC, in 2015 amounted to 199 million rubles., Net profit of 35 million rubles.

This guru repairs still have not got a personal real estate and rents a house, and the available funds invested in his education, receiving, for example, MBA in Business School "Skolkovo". In 2015, he bought shares in two Israeli technology start-ups operating in the field of Big Data.

"Not everything is money, I put it on the map? - Asks Kozhemyakin, quickly pulls out his wallet and looks at him. - No, like still there. "