War in Ukraine: why are several French companies reluctant to leave Russia?

Carole Ferry, edited by Thibault Nadal 6:26 a.m., March 21, 2022, modified at 6:30 a.m., March 21, 2022

While many major American brands have immediately announced their withdrawal from Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, French companies have taken much longer to decide.

In the luxury sector, LVMH, Hermès and Chanel quickly announced their departure, but many others are more hesitant.

Business leaders currently stranded in Armenia

The problem is that most would like to leave, but it's not that simple.

Many small business leaders, for example, have already left Russia, but they find it difficult to return to France.

There are no more direct flights and some find themselves stuck in Armenia.

And then when you leave you abandon your factory, your stocks, your offices, etc.

It's a cost, Some are "in shock", as one entrepreneur confided.

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For the biggest companies, this also means abandoning factories and Vladimir Putin recently threatened to appoint administrators to seize them and restart production.

Concretely, this means that everything the brand owns in Russia can potentially fall into the hands of the competition.

Some companies are still paying their employees

And then it means abandoning the construction sites in progress or the employees, whom certain brands continue to pay.

This is the case, for example, of LVMH or Renault, which had to shut down a factory while waiting to receive the missing parts.

Others offer to come and make them work in France.

In any case, this is a real question for our companies when France is the first foreign employer on the spot.

Currently, all the big companies are doing their thing.

And for some, very established on the spot, like Total Energy, Danone, Auchan or Bonduelle, the decision to leave could be very expensive.