July the 4th, 2021 - The much loved Croatian Pauza delivery platform is no more following Glovo's takeover. The business move was initially announced back in May this year, and the first Croatian platform of this kind has now been extinguished.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Sergej Novosel Vuckovic writes, just as was announced back at the end of May, the once first Croatian web and mobile service for ordering and delivering food from restaurants - Pauza.hr, has now ceased to exist under that name and officially operates within the Glovo platform, one of the largest global platforms for delivery.

Glovo announced that it would take over the Croatian Pauza delivery platform as part of the acquisitions of the Delivery Hero group in seven countries in Croatia's immediate region, of which Pauza was a part. Now all the conditions have been met and the green light of the regulator has been obtained, and the transaction was formally realised.

The Croatian Pauza, therefore, will no longer deliver orders and no longer operates, which can be seen on its page as people are automatically redirected to the Glovo page. The same applies to the Pauza application, as explained by Glovo, otherwise the Croatian market leader in on-demand delivery:

“The entire content of their application and website has already been transferred over to Glovo. Users who enter the Pauza app will be redirected to Glovo through personalised links and will be able to easily register for Glovo in just a few steps. Users of Pauza's website will be redirected to the Glovo website,'' they pointed out.

Catering facilities already present on the Pauza platform don't have to worry, nor do the platform's users, because a total of 800 restaurants have been successfully moved over to the Glovo platform. Glovo also cooperates with the retail chains Lonia, Tommy, dm and even INA petrol stations, and users know very well that they can order almost everything at home or to their office - from sandwiches and fresh meat to flowers, drinks and cosmetics.

“On-demand delivery platforms have been well received on the Croatian market and we're glad to be part of that success. In a very short period of time, from the announcement of the acquisition of the Croatian Pauza platform to the realisation itself, we worked diligently to provide users with the same choice of food they had with Pauza, but more than that. We're convinced that by combining the content and operational expertise of both applications we'll be able to offer our users a much better experience and ultimately the overall user experience,'' said Teo Sirola, CEO of Glovo Croatia.

For more, follow our business section.

March the 21st, 2021 - Croatian food delivery during the pandemic reached new heights as the majority of people were working from home, not working at all, or just fancied a taste of the food from beloved restaurants which at that time had only deliveries as a way of remaining operational.

Wolt, Glovo, Pauza and other perfectly square shaped bags attached to people hurrying along on bikes or motorcycles has become the norm in cities such as Zagreb, but just how much food have we in Croatia been ordering since the pandemic struck?

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Sergej Novosel Vuckovic writes, while most people were busy wearing only half an outfit for their zoom meetings as they worked from home, others worked out there in the field more intensively than ever, making sure that everyone who was at home could still get their hands on some of their favourite foods, even if some were coronavirus patients who likely couldn't even taste it.

One year ago, Croatian food delivery services became a much needed part of life as the "new normal" took hold, into which we were drawn by the pandemic, and in that sense the likes of Glovo proved to be a reliable partner for many Croatian residents ordering food, medicine, or other items.

"Croatian food deliveries using the Glovo application have increased by more than 300 percent since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic here in Croatia when compared to the time before the pandemic hit", they stated from Glovo, revealing what was most ordered and where.

Pauza, Wolt and others are also heavily present in various Croatian cities, and Glovo for example is present across eleven cities (Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek, Zadar, Sisak, Pula, Karlovac, Velika Gorica, Varazdin and Slavonski Brod). Data from the analysis of orders indicate that people's purchasing preferences have changed considerably because habits themselves have altered.

The differences by cities also speak about the cultural peculiarities of their inhabitants during the pandemic.

"Users in Zagreb ate twice as many carrots as those in Split did, but in Split, it seems, fresh cucumber salad was more popular than carrots were. Despite the disagreement in the preferences related to salads, both the citizens of Zagreb and the people of Split agreed on one thing - the inhabitants of both cities love beer very much,'' Glovo stated humourously.

Burgers which have been an absolute hit at various streetfood festivals over recent years, with the temporary disappearance of mass gatherings of people, have also quickly had to move online - so many have been ordered in the past 12 months that, stacked side by side, they would be as long as the entire Adriatic Highway, meaning that burgers were frequent ''riders'' in the bags of Croatian food delivery services.

Not only that, all of the Pizzas bought through Glovo in Croatia would form, if stacked, a tower as tall as 36 Zagreb cathedrals (with or without the cross which destroyed back in the earthquake last year).

"Glovo users ate 1,500 kilograms more oranges during the pandemic than they did before, and one of the most sought-after terms in the app at the beginning of the lockdown was - yeast, whose order and sales volumes were so high that more than 5000 loaves of bread could have been baked from it!'' they pointed out from this Croatian food delivery app.

In addition to food and drink, flowers were ordered thousands of times throughout the year as the opportunity to deliver them to loved ones and put a little smile on their faces during these dark times always seemed to be attractive.

For more on Croatian food delivery services/apps, eating and shopping in Croatia, follow our lifestyle page.