The former Russian division of French DIY retailer Leroy Merlin has announced it will change its name to Lemana PRO as part of a wider rebranding effort following its sale to local management last year.“In order to adapt our mission and name to new challenges and goals, we decided to rebrand,” the company’s Deputy Director General Marina Fytova said in a company press release.“At the same time, our values, corporate culture and company DNA, relationships with clients and partners remain unchanged,” she added.The first stores will be renovated by the end of this year, and the rebranding is expected to finish by 2025, the company said.Amid a mass exodus of Western companies from Russia following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Leroy Merlin initially said it would continue operating in the country, where it employed around 45,000 people.The move prompted a backlash in the West, especially after a Leroy Merlin store in Kyiv was bombed in March 2022, killing one employee.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the company of “sponsoring the Russian war machine” by paying taxes to the Russian government.In March 2023, the retailer’s parent company ADEO announced it would transfer ownership of its 143 Russian stores to local management following allegations that Leroy Merlin had helped supply goods to the Russian army in occupied Ukraine. “Changing the brand will not in any way affect the current activities of the company,” Leroy Merlin’s former Russian division said in its rebranding announcement this week, adding that no organizational changes or layoffs were planned.… we have a small favor to ask.

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