As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, back during the months of November and December last year, Konzum, Lidl, Kaufland, Plodine and Pevex opened several new Zagreb hypermarkets and supermarkets, and when you add the stores that Studenac, Stanic, Tommy and other retail chains have also opened across other parts of the country in the same time period in 2021, there are about twenty newly opened locations for the purchase of various consumer goods.
Although the statistical confirmation for the assessment that Croatian trade is undergoing a new round of expansion is still being waited on, the director of the consulting company Colliers for Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vedrana Likan told Jutarnji list that the expansion of Croatian trade in terms of consumer goods is well and truly underway, as has been announced in previous Colliers analyses.
Vedrana Likan also drew attention to the tendency to open new stores in smaller tourist centres and destinations due to the expected further growth of tourist arrivals and consumption in 2022, adding two other factors that contributed to the new expansion for domestic retailers which offer food and other consumer goods.
The first of these two factors, at least according to her, is the entry of the wildly popular budget store from Italy, Eurospin, into the domestic market, and the second is increased lending to banks.
”If we look at the fact that food retailers such as Konzum, Lidl or Kaufland had the strongest activity when it comes to opening new stores, then the influence of the appearance of Eurospin is visible, which opened fifteen supermarkets in Croatia in the first year of it being present here alone.
In addition to that, in some other cases, foreign capital also entered the Croatian retail scene, which also contributed to investments in the expansion of the trade network,” said the director of Colliers for Croatia, adding that it isn’t unexpected that commercial banks are ready to lend new investments in trade and see the possibility of making money on such projects.
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