Chichvarkin Evgeny Alexandrovich is a well-known Russian businessman, former co-owner of Euroset. In 2011, Forbes magazine included him in the rating of the most unusual entrepreneurs - eccentrics, eccentrics and crazy people.
Childhood and studies
Evgeny Chichvarkin, whose biography is described in this article, was born in Moscow in 1974. The boy's father worked first in civil and then in passenger aviation (total experience - 40 years). Mom worked in the Ministry of Commerce as an economist-engineer.
In 1991-1996, a young man traded in clothing markets. In parallel, he was educated at the Academy of Management, specializing in motor transport. In 1996, Evgeny graduated from the university and entered graduate school, having studied there for another two years. Chichvarkin did not defend his dissertation. In one of his interviews, he said he didn't even come up with the theme.
Euroset
In 1997, Evgeny Chichvarkin, together with his friend Timur Artemyev, opened the Euroset company. The idea of opening a mobile phone salon belonged to Timur. Eugene himself simply loved to sell, and the variety of goods did not matter to him. Later, the media wrote aboutArtemiev and Chichvarkin as co-owners of Euroset. But nowhere was information about the size of the share of each of them disclosed.
Expansion
From the very beginning, Euroset focused on retail sales. Every year, the company's product matrix gradually expanded. In 1999, large-scale advertising began. But the real rapid growth of the company occurred after the introduction of a new development strategy. The basis was a decrease in cell phone prices. By 2002, the number of outlets increased to 11. Yevgeny Chichvarkin opened more than 100 stores. Every year their number has been constantly growing. So in 2003, 117 stores were opened, in 2004 there were already more than 800.
From 2001 to 2004, Euroset entered into contracts with vendors and officially became a partner of such brands as Pantec, Sagem, Philips, Sony Ericsson, Siemens, Samsung, "Motorola" and "LG". Working directly with manufacturers and obtaining the most favorable terms during the negotiations, the company continues to promote a strategy of low prices.
In 2003, Evgeny Chichvarkin took up the development of the regions in earnest. This led to improved economic performance and business growth in Russian cities. The national retailer in the regional market ensured not only the growth of the base of mobile operators and interest in cellular communications, but also contributed to the emergence of real competition, the increase in the professionalism of other retail chains and the creation of jobs.
New round of activities
At the beginning of 2004, Eurosetlaunched DECT phones, MP3 players and cameras. In October, a bonded loan was issued in the amount of 1 billion rubles. In the same year, the company's branches appeared in Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The 1000th anniversary showroom of the firm was opened in Grozny on December 7, 2004.
The main activities of Euroset are: retail trade in cell and DECT phones, personal audio, digital cameras and accessories. The company also connected to telecom operators and provided information services. The number of employees of the company reached 30 thousand. About 45 million people visited Euroset salons every month. In February 2004, Evgeny Chichvarkin received the Person of the Year award in the Retail Business Director category. Since 2005, Euroset began to cooperate with Nokia.
Scandal
Also in 2005, the company acquired the Voronezh "Salon Network" and "Techmarket". This allowed Euroset to become the largest retailer in its segment. At the same time, there was a scandal related to a batch of contraband phones detained at customs. Law enforcement agencies became interested in Euroset. Yevgeny Chichvarkin told the media that in this way they are trying to “crush” his company, and all accusations of smuggling are pure lies. In August 2006, law enforcement closed the case for lack of corpus delicti.
New plans
In 2006, the number of stores reached 3150. A year later, this figure increased to 5156. Communication salons were presented in 12 countries: Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Estonia, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine. Naturally, the company's immediate plans included an IPO. Chichvarkin also planned to open a hypermarket.
In 2007, many media reported about the intention of Euroset to acquire its own bank and enter the relevant market. In order to stand out from the competition, Chichvarkin even came up with the name "Ebank". Most journalists noted the originality of Eugene.
Searchs
In March 2007, the name of Chichvarkin was often mentioned in the press in connection with the arrest of Dmitry Sidorov, who headed the Iled M company. He was suspected of tax evasion, and on a large scale. In 2004-2005, Iled M supplied mobile devices and accessories to Euroset. Just at that time, Chichvarkin was a co-founder of the company, and then unexpectedly left it.
In August of the same year, employees of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted searches in the apartments of Euroset employees. Meanwhile, the information in the media was ambiguous. Some wrote that the searches were related to the 2005 smuggling case. Others claimed that Chichvarkin was involved in Iled M. Also, the version of a marketing move was not ruled out, when, after searches, the company announced the suspension of the supply of cellular phones to its stores, thereby stimulating demand for products.
Nevertheless, most experts adhered to the version that the searches were the response of the security forces to Yevgeny's actions. After all, Chichvarkin was inconfrontations with the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They came to this conclusion after analyzing information from the Kommersant newspaper, which published an article about searches in Euroset. Also, back in March 2006, the "K" department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs confiscated a batch of Motorola phones from the company. Euroset filed a lawsuit for illegal seizure and won. Part of the batch was returned, and the other was destroyed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs “under the guise of harmful goods.”
Sale of the company
In 2008, Vedomosti published information about the negotiations between MTS and Euroset regarding the sale of the latter. At the same time, the publication provided information on the distribution of shares in the company. Artemiev and Chichvarkin owned 50% of the shares. Vedomosti also asked the co-owners of Euroset to comment on the information about the likely sale. Both said it was not true.
In December 2008, Chichvarkin sold Euroset to Vimpelcom (Beeline) and Alexander Mamut in the ratio of 49.9 and 50.1% respectively. Including debt ($850 million), the value of the deal was $1.25 billion, and without it, about $400 million.
Criminal case
After the sale of the company, Evgeny Chichvarkin and his wife Antonina left Russia for London. And already in January 2009, a case was opened against a businessman, he was arrested in absentia. In March, Eugene was put on the international wanted list. Thanks to the competent work of his lawyers, Chichvarkin managed to achieve the termination of criminal prosecution. In 2011, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation closed his case and stopped the international search. EvgenyChichvarkin and his wife still live in London and are not going to return.
Private life
Many media consider his image rather unusual for a serious businessman. In an interview, Eugene said that people often take him for an idiot. On the one hand, the entrepreneur was offended, but there were situations when it was even convenient. In 2007, a publication was published, in the writing of which Evgeny Chichvarkin took part. The book was called "If you are sent 99 times out of 100." The genre of the publication is "success story". In it, the businessman described in detail his biography and the history of the formation of Euroset. Critics said that the figure of Yevgeny in the book "turned out not very pretty, so the degree of reliability of the presentation is quite high."
Despite his large fortune (3 billion dollars), the businessman does not consider himself rich. Money for him is just an opportunity. The entrepreneur is married and very happy in marriage. The wife of Evgeny Chichvarkin is a housewife. Together with her husband, she is raising two children: daughter Marta and son Yaroslav.
