ZAGREB, 30 April 2022 - A total of 9,158 businesses with 102,085 employees operated in the retail trade sector in Croatia in 2020, and the sector's consolidated result was a profit in the amount of HRK 2.2 billion, show data from the Financial Agency.

The number of retail businesses in 2020 was 3.1% up from the previous year.

In 2020, the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, those businesses earned revenues in the amount of HRK 101.5 billion, while their expenditure totalled HRK 98.8 billion.

A total of 5,450 businesses operated at a profit, a drop of 13% from the previous year while the number of loss-making businesses increased by 18.3% to 3,708.

Profit for the period amounted to HRK 3.2 billion, a drop of 6.9% from 2019, while the loss for the period dropped by 4.8% to 1.05 billion.

The consolidated financial result was a net profit of HRK 2.2 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 7.8%.

The average monthly net wage in the retail sector in 2020 was HRK 5,306, which is 8.7% more than in 2019 and 11.1% below the average monthly net wage in the enterprise sector in Croatia (5,971).

Konzum Plus with highest revenue

The Konzum Plus retailer earned the highest revenue in 2020, HRK 10 billion.

It is followed by Lidl Hrvatska, with HRK 6.1 billion, and Spar Hrvatska with HRK 5 billion.

The highest profit for the period in 2020 was earned by Lidl Hrvatska, in the amount of HRK 274.8 billion.

Number of employees, revenue, net profit increase between 2016 and 2020

In the period from 2016 to 2020, the number of employees in the retail sector grew by 12.1%, total revenue increased by 16.4%, expenditure by 15.3% and net profits by as much as 84%.

Retail businesses operated at a profit throughout the period, the highest profit being reported in 2019, amounting to HRK 2.3 billion.

The number of employees in the period grew by 11,058 or 12.1%, from 91,027 employees in 2016 to 102,085 in 2020.

The average net wage grew by 23.7% from HRK 4,288 in 2016 to HRK 5,306 in 2020.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

ZAGREB, 18 Feb 2022 - Retailers won't increase their margins and the price of food will go down, the Večernji List daily reported on Friday, citing the Lidl supermarket chain which has announced lower prices as of March already, one month before the government's decision to cut VAT rates on certain food products goes into force.

Prices for all categories for which the government has decided to lower VAT will certainly fall. Retailers will not increase their margin because nobody can afford to be more expensive than their competition, and when margins remain stable, prices will decrease by the difference in VAT, the president of the board of the NTL supermarket retail chain, Martin Evačić, said.

The government's measures announced earlier this week foresee VAT to fall as of 1 April, from 13% to 5%, on fresh meat and fish, eggs, fruit, vegetables, edible oil, lard, and children's food, and also in agriculture (seedlings, fertilizer, pesticides), while VAT on butter and margarine will decrease from 25% to 5%.

Evačić, who is the president of the Retailers' Association at the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP), underscored that the concentration of retailers on the Croatian market is too high and that consumers watch how they spend every kuna. The lower VAT will mean a decrease in budget revenue, however, with the lower prices demand could be greater, which could offset the effect of the lower revenue and ensure the same profit for retailers.

Some retailers have announced the price of flour and bread could go up again in March by an average of 10% so we are yet to see if some of the government's measures will prevent that increase, Evačić says.

The Konzum supermarket retail chain has announced that it will reduce the prices of more than a thousand items as of Monday, 21 February, including fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, eggs, edible oil and lard, butter and margarine, children's food, and hygienic pads and tampons.

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