All HORECA conference participants agreed that 2016 marked a very successful tourist season, with Croats drinking a record amount of coffee, beer and wine. The second HORECA conference was held in Opatija this weekend.
The conference, which brought together the leading Croatian distributors and manufacturers of beverages, analyzed trends and the state of the HORECA channel, with discussions on the expectations for next year, reports Poslovni.hr.
All conference participants agree that the year 2016 marked a very successful tourist season which resulted in record consumption in virtually all types of drinks. Breweries pointed out that thanks to the European football championship (EURO 2016), this year was a record for the beer industry, and while Croats already have a traditionally high consumption of beer, they are increasingly becoming a wine nation - approaching the trends in Italy and France. But of course, one of the most traditional features of the Croatian identity - relaxed coffee drinking - has become even more contagious among tourists, and trends show a continued increase in consumption in this segment as well.
Among the conclusions, satisfactory results could be heard about the 2016 year which credited the increase in purchasing power of domestic consumers and Croatian brands among the drinks which still ruled the region, making it realistic to expect consolidation of positions on them from penetrating the saturated Western European markets.
Despite the positive results, participants noted that the demographic trends, which primarily refer to the emigration and changes that will bring an increase in VAT in catering, will have a significant impact in the coming years.
This presentation held within the conference was lead by principal analyst of Addiko Banks Hrvoje Stojic, who stressed that "Croatia in 2017 can expect economic growth at the level of this year which was supported by growth in investment in tourism, a good tourist season, and an increase of purchasing power for citizens. Also, we can expect an increase in the number of employees by 2 percent, especially in the small and medium enterprises, which were the dominant drivers of growth in recent years,” concluded Stojic, pointing out the HORECA segment doubled its number of employees from 2011 and in the same period increased revenue by as much as 70 percent.
The second HORECA conference was organized by the HORECA Group, whose members include four national distributors: Apfel Ltd. from Makarska, Ba-com Trade Ltd. Split, Bijelic Co. Ltd. Osijek and Stridon Transport Ltd. from Zagreb.
