Nestlé is planning to close its ice cream manufacturing plant in Serbia, according to a report in local newspaper Večernje Novosti.
Due to unsatisfactory sales and difficulties in distribution in the region, the Swiss company will close down its factory in Stara Pazova and move all ice cream production to Greece.
Besides supplying the local market, the Serbian factory exports ice cream to Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Serbian operations were part of the 2005 deal that saw Nestlé acquiring Greece’s Delta Ice Cream for €240 million, a deal that included four production facilities in Greece and the Balkans.
At the time, Delta Sladoled had more than 50 per cent market share in Serbia.
Since then Nestlé has been faced with increased competition, especially from local company Frikom, purchased in 2013 by Croatian food-to-retail consortium Agrokor through its Ledo unit.
Frikom has benefitted from the distribution offered by Agrokor’s Serbian retail outlets Roda and Idea.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
