Evgeny Chichvarkin: biography, creativity, books, and personal life

Chichvarkin Evgeny Alexandrovich is a well-known Russian businessman, a former co-owner of Euroset. In 2011, Forbes magazine ranked him among the most unusual entrepreneurs - eccentrics, eccentrics and fools.

Childhood and study

Evgeny Chichvarkin, whose biography is described in this article, was born in Moscow in 1974. The father of the boy worked first in civil, and then in passenger aviation (total experience - 40 years). Mom worked in the Ministry of Trade as an economist-engineer.

In 1991-1996, the young man traded in clothing markets. In parallel, he received an education in the Academy of Management, specializing in motor transport. In 1996, Eugene graduated from the university and entered post-graduate studies, after studying there for another two years. Chichvarkin did not defend the thesis. In one of his interviews, he said that he did not even come up with a topic.

Euroset

In 1997, Yevgeny Chichvarkin, along with his friend Timur Artemiev, opened the Euroset company. The idea of opening a mobile phone salon belonged to Timur. Eugene simply liked to sell, and the variety of the goods did not matter to him. Later the media wrote about Artemiev and Chichvarkin as co-owners of Euroset. But nowhere was there information about the size of the share of each of them.

Expansion

From the very beginning, Euroset focused on retail sales. Each year, the company's product matrix gradually expanded. In 1999, large-scale advertising began. But the really rapid growth of the company occurred after the introduction of a new development strategy. At the core of the decline was the price of cellular. By 2002, the number of outlets had risen to 11. Evgeny Chichvarkin opened more than 100 salons. With each year, their number has grown steadily. So in 2003, 117 stores opened, in 2004 there are more than 800.

From 2001 to 2004, Euroset signed contracts with vendors and officially became a partner of such brands as Pantec, Sagem, Philips, Sony Ericsson, Siemens, Samsung, Motorola and "AlGe." Working directly with manufacturers and getting the most favorable terms during the negotiations, the company continues to promote the strategy of low prices.

In 2003, Yevgeny Chichvarkin seriously engaged in the development of the regions. This led to an increase in economic performance and business growth in Russian cities. The national retailer in the regional market provided not only an increase in the base of mobile operators and interest in cellular communications, but also contributed to the emergence of real competition, the professionalism of other retail chains and the creation of jobs.

A new round of activity

In early 2004, Euroset launched DECT-phones, MP3-players and cameras. In October, a bond issue worth 1 billion rubles was issued. In the same year there were branches of the company in Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The jubilee thousandth salon of the company was opened in Grozny on December 7, 2004.

The main activities of Euroset were: retail trade in cellular and DECT telephones, 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. Every month, Euroset's salons were visited by about 45 million people. In February 2004, Evgeny Chichvarkin received the Person of the Year Award in the category "Retail Business Director". Since 2005, Euroset began to cooperate with Nokia.

Scandal

Also in 2005 the company acquired Voronezh's "Salon network" and "Techmarket". This allowed Euroset to become the largest retailer in its segment. At the same time, there was a scandal involving a batch of smuggled phones detained at customs. "Euroset" interested in law enforcement. Yevgeny Chichvarkin told the media that in this way his company is trying to "crush", and all charges of smuggling are a sheer lie. In August 2006, law enforcement agencies closed the case for lack of corpus delicti.

New plans

In 2006, the number of stores reached 3150. And a year later this figure increased to 5156. Communication salons were represented in 12 countries: Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Estonia, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine. Naturally, in the near future the company planned an IPO. Chichvarkin also planned to open a hypermarket.

In 2007, many media outlets described Euroset's intention 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.

Searches

In March 2007, Chichvarkin's name was often mentioned in the press in connection with the arrest of Dmitry Sidorov, who headed the firm "Iled M". He was suspected of evading taxes, and on a large scale. In 2004-2005, "Iled M" supplied mobile and accessories to Euroset. Just at that time, Chichvarkin was a co-founder of the firm, and then suddenly left it.

In August of the same year, officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted searches in the apartments of employees of Euroset. Meanwhile, the information in the media was ambiguous. Some wrote that searches are related to the 2005 smuggling case. Others claimed that Chichvarkin was involved in "Ilead M". Also, the version of the marketing move was not excluded, when after the searches, the company announced the suspension of cellular shipments to its stores, thus stimulating demand for the products.

Nevertheless, most experts adhered to the version that searches are the answer of the siloviki to the actions of Yevgeny. After all, Chichvarkin was in confrontation with the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They came to this conclusion after analyzing the information from the newspaper Kommersant, where they came to search for Euroset. Also in March 2006, the K department of the Interior Ministry confiscated from the company a lot of Motorola phones. "Euroset" filed a lawsuit on illegal seizure and won. Part of the party was returned, and other MVD employees were destroyed "under the guise of harmful goods."

Sale of the company

In 2008, Vedomosti published information on the negotiations between MTS and Euroset about the sale of the latter. At the same time, the publication provided information on the distribution of shares in the company. Artemyev and Chichvarkin owned 50% of the shares. Also, Vedomosti asked the co-owners of Euroset to comment on the information on the probable sale. Both said that this 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. Taking into account the debt (850 million dollars), the value of the deal was $ 1.25 billion, and without taking into account $ 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, the businessman got the case, arrested him in absentia. In March, Eugene was declared an international wanted man. Due 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 ceased the international search. Evgeny Chichvarkin and his wife still live in London and are not going to return.

Personal life

Many media consider its image quite 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, the publication appeared, 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 a "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 Eugene in the book "was not very nice, so the degree of reliability of the presented is quite high."

Despite the large fortune ($ 3 billion), the businessman does not consider himself rich. Money for him is only an opportunity. The businessman is married and very happy in marriage. Evgeny Chichvarkin's wife is a housewife. Together with her husband she brings up two children: the daughter of Martha and the son of Yaroslav.