Carrefour not only one planning to enter Serbian market – Fix Price, Eurospin and Spar Austria also interested

In addition to the retail chain Carrefour, the news of whose arrival on the Serbian market has been revived after the recent meeting of Minister of Domestic and Foreign Trade Jagoda Lazarevic with representatives of this chain, other chains are also interested in entering the retail map of Serbia.

Other large companies planning such a move are the Italian Eurospin, the Russian Fix Price, and Spar Austria, pointed out Zarko Grozdanic, editor of the Retail Serbia website for Biznis.rs.

– In addition to Carrefour, there is also the Italian Eurospin, which has been actively working on entering the Serbian market for a year. We can expect their first stores in the next two years. The Russian Fix Price, which is entering the market faster, is also preparing to enter, so I expect their facilities in the next few months. We should not be surprised if we see renewed interest in Serbia from the Spar Austria group in the coming period – he stated.

When it comes to the entry of the Carrefour chain, Grozdanic reminded that the company divided its presence into integrated countries and those in which it operated through a franchise. He also mentioned that, the year before, the company Retail and More from Greece had taken over the master franchise for the Serbian market, and added that he was therefore surprised by the visit of representatives of the French company, considering that the Greek company had not long before confirmed that it planned to enter the Balkan countries.

– The arrival of the French brand in Serbia would mean a lot to everyone, and most of all to consumers who would get a greater choice, and therefore probably lower prices. There is a great possibility that Carrefour will take over one or more chains in Serbia. In the statement of the Ministry of Domestic and Foreign Trade, we saw that representatives of the French company emphasized that they would also expand their presence through the franchise model, that is, a part of the facilities would be owned by them, while smaller formats would work in cooperation with local partners. Such a model has shown very good results – Grozdanic emphasized.

Carrefour owns a large number of brands that operate within the group, including Supeco - a brand that is a mix of a smaller hypermarket and a discounter.

– If the French retail chain really enters the Serbian market, I expect that we will see that brand in some phases of its operations, given the growth of discounters in Serbia – adds Grozdanic.

Carrefour doo Beograd

Ministarstvo unutrašnje i spoljne trgovine Republike Srbije

FIX PRICE RS DOO BEOGRAD

EUROSPIN RETAIL d.o.o. Beograd

Carrefour

Fix Price

Eurospin

Spar Austria

Ministry of Trade

Žarko Grozdanić

entrance of new retail chains to Serbian market