Croatia’s largest retailer hopes to expand to Asia.
Agrokor, one of largest companies in Croatia, is interested in launching business cooperation with Alibaba, China’s largest retailer. The Croatian company is currently undergoing the process of digital transformation and has launched the Abrakadabra online store. It is examining possibilities for cooperation with Alibaba, which would not include mergers and acquisitions, but specific projects, reports Večernji List on January 25, 2017.
Anja Linić Sikavica, director of public relations at Agrokor, confirmed that the group was interested in the cooperation with Alibaba. “We are in touch with their teams and there are possibilities for cooperation on a number of projects”, she said.
Lobbyist David Lekaj, who last week announced that representatives of Alibaba should soon visit Croatia to talk about possible investment, explained that Zadar, the government, Office of the President, Agrokor and several other companies had been trying for more than two years to attract the Chinese investment. Lekaj said that, before going to China to meet with the management of Alibaba, he met three times with Agrokor’s management.
“Agrokor has emerged as a logical partner, because it is a large system which has logistics and storage capacities that can process large amounts of products and be marketed online and offline to China, while Zadar is interesting due to infrastructure resources which it offers”, said Lekaj. He pointed out that he could not comment on Agrokor’s plans. His idea was to inform Alibaba about possibilities for investing in Croatia. “The main goal was to encourage the export of top quality Croatian food products to China – truffles, olive oils, jams, wines, frozen fish”, said Lekaj.
Agrokor is aware that they are relatively new to e-commerce business. “We have started intensive activities and launched plans for expansion in the region. According to some sources, just three percent of people makes online purchases several times a year, and almost half of online spending in Croatia is spent in foreign stores, which demonstrated the potential that we have”, said Agrokor representatives.
First lobbying drive with regards to China was launched by former President Stjepan Mesić, and in 2015 China was visited by current President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. According to the Croatian Chamber of Economy, foreign trade with China in 2015 amounted to 656 million dollars, of which just 77 million dollars was Croatian export to China.
The largest online retailer in Croatia, e-Kupi, has been working on export of Croatian products to China since 2010. They started the construction of the second factory of technology products in China and have built a European business centre in Nanjing to help European companies sell their premium products in China.
