Luna fashion company opens its first store in Oslo - Expansion to markets of the Netherlands and the EU countries in the pipeline

Luna fashion company from Pozarevac opened its first retail store in Oslo in June. Although the store was opened later than people at Luna expected, Biljana Jovanovic, owner and director of this fashion company, says for eKapija that they are satisfied with the performance in Norway.

- Norway is a great potential for Luna. We plan to open another 2 to 7 similar stores, as well as to expand the business to the Scandinavian countries. The results are currently good and our expectations are fulfilled.

According to the words of Ms. Jovanovic, Luna now has a total of 9 stores, some of which are the company's own stores and some are franchises, and over 150 wholesale customers in the whole region and in the EU. Luna has its own customers who work as distribution agents in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, and a distribution agent in Norway, and people at Luna expect further expansion.

- We have started negotiations in the market of the Netherlands. The first collection has been shipped, but it is still too early to talk about results. We exported some goods to Australia about two months ago and we now wait to see how the sales are going. In any case, when we talk about foreign market, our priorities are the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands, while Luna also plans to expand to the EU countries such as Poland or to Russia.

Negotiations on the opening of the first Luna retail store in Croatia are also underway. Luna has its own distribution center in that country for two years now.

- The opening of the first retail store in Croatia would mean a great success for the Serbian textile industry because Luna would be sold as a brand in a market other than Serbia, which is excellent.

What is also in the pipeline is the opening of a branch office and the first Luna store in Montenegro because, as Jovanovic says, although they operate traditionally well in that market for years now, they have never had either agents or distributors there. Instead, the Montenegrin market has been supplied with goods directly in Serbia.

As one of the leading trademarks, the fashion company Luna is a member of the Cluster of Textile Industry of Serbia, which was formed in September 2010. Jovanovic's expectations regarding that association are optimistic and she hopes that merging on that basis will make a certain progress when it comes to the textile industry.

- This cluster is formed primarily with the aim of boosting the sales abroad, and I believe that all activities of the cluster in the following period will go that direction.

Along with another 19 textile companies from Serbia, Luna presented its product portfolio to potential German partners in Frankfurt in May. Ms. Jovanovic says that Luna is satisfied with its participation and presentation of the Serbian textile industry in Frankfurt because it made a number of useful contacts.

According to the words of our interlocutor, Luna renews its production every three months. This fashion company has its own target group and complete product portfolio, and there are no plans for innovations such as clothing for kids.

Luna's summer collection can already be found in stores. The autumn collection is under preparation and is expected to hit the stores on August 15.

The fashion company Luna is also the winner of this year's Business Partner 2011 award. Jovanovic says that that award is particularly flattering because fostering good business relations, with both customers and external associates and suppliers, is one of the priorities of Luna from the very start.

- To be successful in Serbia is not easy nowadays and that is why we find this award very significant - said Ms. Jovanovic.

I.B.