Zenden, shoe holding

ZENDEN is a federal chain of shoe salons for women's, men's and children's shoes, founded in 1997.

By the beginning of 2023, Zenden operates about 400 stores in 120 cities of Russia.

History

2025: Departure from the company and the composition of the co-owners of Alexander Sarychev

The general director of the Zenden shoe store chain, Alexander Sarychev, has left his post. Since February 18, 2025, the top manager ceased to be a co-owner of Seasonal Collection LLC, in which he owned 3%, his share was received by the founder of the network Andrei Pavlov (recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent). Now he has 99% in the company, 1% in Pavel Chaltsev. The corresponding entry appeared in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities in March 2025. Sarychev was also a co-owner of another legal entity Zenden - Clothing House LLC, he also transferred 3% to Pavlov, now he has 99% in the company, 1% in Chaltsev. Read more here

2024: Searches over suspected digital labeling forgery

Employees Federal Security Service Ministry of the Interior Russia and conducted investigative measures in the offices and warehouses of the largest shoe retailer Zenden in the case of illegal circulation of unmarked products. Operational actions began in November 2024.

According to RBC, searches took place at the company's Moscow headquarters on Shchukinskaya Street and warehouses located in the White Pillars microdistrict of the Domodedovo city district.

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Фото: Freepik

Viktor Gorodkov, head of the Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, notes that during market monitoring, multiple violations of labeling rules were found, including the use of fictitious codes and the re-sale of goods with identical identifiers.

The Investigation Department opened a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 171.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia "Production, acquisition, storage, transportation or sale of goods without marking." The sanction provides for imprisonment for up to six years for committing a crime by a group of persons causing major damage.

Experts from the Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies point out that counterfeit marking is often used to evade taxation by underestimating the actual volume of sales of products.

According to the publication, since July 2020, Russia has a ban on the sale of unmarked shoes. All market participants are required to register the movement of goods in the state labeling information system.

Operational investigative actions also affected companies allegedly associated with the owner of the trading network, which is included in the register of individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent. Law enforcement agencies continue to identify schemes to evade mandatory labeling of goods.^[1]

2023: The Federal Tax Service through the court collected 1.1 billion rubles in taxes and fines for crushing business

In January 2023, the shoe chain Zenden (Clothing House LLC) lost a dispute in the Court of Appeal with the Federal Tax Service No. 13 in the Vladimir Region about the recovery of almost 600 million rubles of lost taxes from it. Taking into account fines and penalties, Zenden will have to pay about 1.1 billion rubles to the budget.

The first arbitration court of appeal refused to satisfy the retailer's complaint. This means that the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Vladimir Region to recognize the claim for debt collection from the House of Clothing LLC entered into legal force.

In 2016, the Federal Tax Service No. 13 in the Vladimir Region conducted an audit of the Zenden structure for 2013-2015. The tax office accused Zenden of deliberately "crushing the business" through 22 individual entrepreneurs. LLC "House of Clothing" supplied them with shoes purchased abroad, but the individual entrepreneurs were controlled by the company itself and part of the proceeds was withdrawn to them. The company "as a result of artificial business crushing received an unreasonable tax benefit" in the form of a reduction in load by 43.6%.

In 2019, the House of Clothing appealed to the court and won the case on the recognition of the actions of the tax authorities invalid, but in October 2021 the cassation sent this case for a new trial. In the summer of 2022, the Arbitration Court of the Vladimir Region refused to satisfy the requirements of the Zenden structure. In January 2023, this decision was confirmed by the appellate instance.

Disputes related to accusations of business fragmentation are one of the most common among all tax disputes, "said Alexander Erasov, partner of MEF tax practice, in a conversation with Kommersant.

The outcome of such cases, he said, depends on whether the fact of conducting a single business, and not the existence of independent economic entities, will be proved.^[2]

2016:200 stores in 102 cities

As of August 2016, ZENDEN is an international company with a staff of more than 2000 people. The centralized management of a geographically distributed enterprise through a network of regional branches is carried out by two head offices: in Moscow and Guangzhou (China). Over the past 15 years, ZENDEN has been steadily developing, and as of August 2016, about 200 stores in 102 cities of Russia operate under the ZENDEN brand .

The retail division of ZENDEN is a classically built network business with centralized management and a single marketing policy. In all cities of presence, the company strives to ensure that any of its stores or shoe centers become the first choice for a customer who decides to purchase shoes for any family member. The holding builds all activities based on this task.

Thus, ZENDEN constantly optimizes the range, and recently began production in Sweden and Russia of cosmetics for shoes under the ZENDEN brand. However, its main task for August 2016 is to expand its geography by opening new stores in the Russian Federation and absorbing networks of other brands (with the transfer of their outlets to ZENDEN standards and technology), as well as periodic modernization of its own outlets.

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