Russian discounter Mere (Svetofor) has opened its first store in Bosnia and Herzegovina, located in eastern Sarajevo.
Further store openings are planned in Doboj and Prijedor in June 2022, to be followed by Bijeljina, Bihać, Mostar, Banja Luka, Tuzla and Zenica.
Mere’s goal is to have between 50 and 80 points of sale in Bosnia and Herzegovina in cities with over 50,000 inhabitants.
Product Range
Currently, the banner offers only a limited number of products from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Serbia, from mostly unknown manufacturers, and has pledged to offer significantly lower prices.
The director of the first Mere store, Miroslav Dronjak, told news platform N1 that "at the moment, there are no Russian products here, for reasons known to all of us. We hope that all this will calm down and that we will be in a position to procure some Russian goods."
Mere claims that the prices of its products are 20% cheaper compared to its cheapest rival in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Mere is already operating in Serbia (pictured) and is also eyeing North Macedonia.
Lidl Prepares For Market Entry
Another discounter eagerly expected in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Germany’s Lidl.
Preparatory activities are still underway, but events on the global market and the current political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina have contributed to the postponement of the opening of the first stores, according to N1.
In addition, Lidl has not yet managed to secure land for its central warehouse and is still prospecting potential locations for shops.
Unofficially, the company currently has four registered offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina, two in Sarajevo and one each in Banja Luka and Brcko.
The first workers have been hired, the discounter has confirmed, and have been sent to Serbia and Croatia for training.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
