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Danish retailers boycott shoemaker ECCO over Russia presence

The logo of Danish shoe manufacturer and retailer ECCO is seen outside a store in Vienna

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Several of Denmark's largest retailers and online shops as well as Sweden's Boozt have halted sales of ECCO products following the Danish shoemaker's decision to keep its stores in Russia open.

Family-owned ECCO has kept its more than 250 shops in Russia open, even as many other global fashion brands such as Nike and Adidas have suspended operations in the country since its invasion of Ukraine two months ago.

Swedish online shop Boozt, which sells more than 700 fashion brands, told Reuters it would no longer make any new orders with ECCO following the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.

Five Danish retailers and online shops, including Intersport, told Reuters they had suspended sale of ECCO products or would not take new orders from the company.

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ECCO did not reply to requests for comment.

"A core value of our culture is that we take good care of our employees. That is key for us, and the reason why we are staying in Russia," chief executive Panos Mytaros told Berlingske newspaper last month.

"We have to be realistic and say that ECCO plays a very small role in the Russian economy. Oil and gas, for example, is far more important. We are losing money on our Russian business and will therefore not pay any corporate tax," he said.

The company would follow potential new sanctions that would make it impossible to continue its business in Russia, Mytaros said.

ECCO, which has around 2,200 shops worldwide, had revenue of 1.1 billion euros ($1.19 billion) in 2020.

Danish shoe retailer Skoringen had decided to keep ECCO products on their shelves.

"What we have on our shelves has nothing to do with Russia's war. They've been bought by a Danish supplier eight months ago," Skoringen's managing director, Frank Sorensen, told Reuters.

($1 = 0.9243 euros)

(Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)