German supermarket chain Lidl has given up on plans to start operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the time being, according to local daily Vecernje List BiH.
For months, Lidl had been seeking around 15 store locations in the Balkan country, but in recent weeks there has been a change of plans.
Unnamed sources said that the German investors abandoned their plans for Bosnia and Herzegovina due to the volatile political situation in the country. In such an environment, they added, foreigners do not want to invest their resources, especially not in such large projects as those that Lidl had planned.
Lidl’s scouts had found a number of locations, but the project has currently been frozen. Besides supermarkets in 15 locations, Lidl had also planned a warehouse in Sarajevo and possibly one in Mostar.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Serbia Lidl has said it will not start operations before 2018, as it is currently in the process of acquiring locations and building stores.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
