"Merkur" opened new trade center in Belgrade - 25m EUR invested in facility in Karaburma

Slovenian trade company "Merkur" opened a 25m EUR worth of trade center in Belgrade today (October 15, 2009), which employs 101 workers.

- The trade center at 29,000 square meters in Karaburma is the third facility of the kind in Serbia and the largest investment of "Merkur Group" in 2009 - Bojan Pongrac, the CEO of company "Merkur Srbija", said at the opening ceremony.

According to his words, the trade center in Karaburma will offer 50,000 products for equipping apartments and arranging gardens, as well as products for home workshops, entrepreneurs and craftsmen, 40% of which are made in Serbia.

Pongrac said that the center in Karaburma was twice as big as the one in Belgrade's settlement Bežanija, and that the value of goods in it amounted to about 3.5m EUR.

The center will comprise the retail space of Serbian furniture manufacturer and vendor "Forma ideale" at 800 square meters.

The President of the Administration of "Merkur Group", Bine Kordež, said that the newly opened center in Belgrade was the largest center of that group and one of the five that would be opened in the region in 2009.

Kordež pointed out that he believed in the economic potential of Serbia and its market opportunities, which was the reason why the realization of all investment plans would be resumed in spite of the economic crisis.

Total turnover of "Merkur Group" in 2008, which employs about 5,000 people, amounted to over 1.3 billion EUR, while the turnover in Serbia amounted to about 100m EUR.

Serbian Minister of Trade and Services, Slobodan Milosavljević, said at the opening ceremony that Belgrade lacked stores with the products that "Merkur" offered to the buyers, and he expressed hope that that Slovenian company would keep investing in Serbia.

On the occasion of opening of the new trade center in Belgrade, "Merkur Group" donated 3,000 EUR to Primary School "Jovan Popović" in Karaburma.