Ralf Ringer

Ralf RINGER Group of Companies is a Russian shoe manufacturer and retailer. The company produces shoes for the whole family made of natural materials and sells products in the middle price segment. The company has 3 own factories (in Moscow, Vladimir, Zaraysk) equipped with modern technological equipment, and a distribution network (over 1000 outlets, including more than 140 stores of the branded retail network). The maximum production capacity is 2.0 million pairs per year.

History

2024: Declared Bankrupt

In December 2024, the shoe retailer Ralf Ringer was declared bankrupt. In relation to Ralph Ringer, the head structure of the manufacturer and seller of shoes under the Ralf Ringer brand, bankruptcy proceedings have begun. This was reported in the file cabinet of the Moscow Arbitration Court.

  The company "Stivali," which acted as a lender to Ralf Ringer, asked to declare the shoe manufacturer bankrupt. The petition was received last summer, the court granted it on December 6, 2024.

2023

Seizure of bills

Russian shoe retailer Ralf Ringer has all bank accounts arrested. This became known in October 2023 after a bankruptcy lawsuit was filed against the company. The statement was written by Stivali LLC, a lessor of Ralf Ringer production facilities in the Moscow region.

According to Kommersant, the amount of Ralf Ringer's debt to the lessor is small (20.7 million rubles), but the complete blocking of accounts due to tax proceedings does not allow the retailer to pay off the lender. Lawyer Vadim Borodkin noted that the seizure of accounts is usually imposed without exceptions for current payments. This paralyzes the company's activities and makes a way out of the crisis almost impossible.

All bank accounts seized from Ralf Ringer

According to experts interviewed by the publication, initiating bankruptcy by the landlord may be an attempt to gain control over the procedure, since it is associated with Ralf Ringer through ownership of shares in subsidiaries. The purpose may be to appoint a manager independent of the tax service.

According to SPARK-Interfax, Steel belongs to Alexander Balukhtin. He has shares of 0.1% each in Ralph Ringer Providence LLC and Ralph Ringer Production LLC. Two of these legal entities, together with JSC Ralph Ringer, are managed by one company - Ralph Ringer Management. Taking into account this connection, the court can state the existence of actual affiliation, admitted Vadim Borodkin, adviser to the Orchards law firm.

He noted that at the later stages of the consideration of the case, the tax can gain control over the bankruptcy procedure. According to Borodkin, for this, the amount of debt to the Federal Tax Service should exceed the size of the claims of other creditors.

By October 2023, Ralf Ringer operates about 170 stores of the same name throughout Russia.^[1]

Victory in court over the Federal Tax Service in a lawsuit for 1.45 billion rubles

On January 20, 2023, it became known that the Moscow Arbitration Court sided with Ralph Ringer JSC in a dispute with the Federal Tax Service (FTS). One of the oldest Russian shoe retailers demanded to cancel the accrual by tax authorities of about 1.45 billion rubles in taxes, fees, fines and penalties.

According to Vedomosti, the requirements for Ralph Ringer were declared illegal. From the materials of the court, to which the newspaper refers, it follows that decisions on the field audit of business, held in 2017, were made only in 2021. According to the law, the results of the audit should have been summed up within two years.

The tax service was unable to recover 1.5 billion rubles from the Ralf Ringer shoe chain

After the announcement of the decision in the case, the litigation between the Federal Tax Service and the owner of the Ralf Ringer brand is not over. Representatives of the tax office have already initiated the consideration of the complaint in the Ninth Court of Appeal. The review will take place on January 30, 2023.

Initially, the amount of recovery was 3.2 billion rubles. The tax office considered that the only supplier of the manufacturer transported less materials and components across the border than as a result, shoes were produced. VAT The tax authorities blamed the network for the fact that there were no deliveries at all, and from the costs of Ralf Ringer, which reduce the taxable base, expenses and deductions for all materials purchased in three audited years were excluded.

At the end of 2022, it became known that the Federal Tax Service seized the property of a shoe retailer and banned the alienation of business equipment, receivables and one of the retailer's patents.

If the tax authorities collected 1.5 billion rubles from Ralf Ringer, this could lead to the bankruptcy of the company, said Stepan Khantimirov, a lawyer at Asterisk Law Office. On the other hand, the court suspended the acts of inspections, which allowed them to forcibly recover the amount, which is a good sign, he added.^[2]

Notes