OREANDA-NEWS. June 17, 2014. Clothing company Marat, founded in Tallinn in 1907, will return production to Estonia from Belarus after a takeover.

New owner Kristi Taht said she is hoping to expand the company's sales network in Estonia and abroad with the Russian and Scandinavian markets in sight.

The company currently has 10 stores in seven Estonian cities, employing 22 people. Sixty-five percent of last year's turnover of 2.5 million euros was achieved in Estonia, with exports making up the rest.

Marat began as a clothes store in 1907, and began production of its own clothes 19 years later. The company was nationalized in 1940 and renamed “Marat” after French revolutionary Jean Paul Marat. The company grew in the '50s and '60s thanks to large investments by the state and even produces clothes for Olympic athletes. The company was privatized in 1991.