Men's Chester sandals. Photo from TJ Collection.
Chester shoe brand stores are being renamed TJ Studio.
KL Group, which operates stores for British brands Chester, TJ Studio, and TJ Collection, like many fashion brands, has experienced declining sales. Consumers' shift to online shopping and intense competition in the mid-price segment have forced the retailer to change its retail format, Kommersant reports.
Chester stores are changing their name to TJ Studio, and their selection will retain 10-15% of Chester footwear and accessories. Nineteen stores in 16 cities are operating under the new names.
According to SPARK, KL Group was registered in Moscow in 2017 by Azat Akhmetov, who had managed the TJ Collection business since the brand's inception in Russia in the 1990s. In 2018, KL Group was acquired by Malaysia's United Trading Ltd. The ultimate beneficiaries of this entity are not disclosed. By the end of 2025, KL Group's revenue had decreased by 9,2% to 4,5 billion rubles, while net profit had fallen more than 30-fold to 5,2 million rubles.
Initially, the brand was positioned as British. (Editor's note: At the time, many brands aiming to sell their products in Russia in the 90s mimicked "Western" brands to appeal to consumers, who were more willing to buy Western brands. It was not uncommon for owners of fashion brands to intentionally register their products abroad to provide grounds for claiming their brand's foreign origin.)
In fact, the trademarks TJ Collection, TJ Studio, "TJ," Chester England, and others belong to TJ Footwear, a company registered in the British county of Surrey in 1995. According to the UK register of legal entities, Timur Akhmetov, a South African citizen residing in China, exercises "significant control" over this company.
Market participants believe that changing the retail network's concept in the footwear segment appears to be a more reasonable solution than closing retail stores and switching entirely to online, citing the specific nature of the shoe selection and purchase process.
"Remote shoe sales are fraught with high return rates and loss of profitability: the standard repurchase rate for shoes ordered on marketplaces is less than 50%," notes Anna Lebsak-Kleimans, CEO of Fashion Consulting Group.
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