ZAGREB (Croatia), October 17 (SeeNews) – Croatian cosmetics and consumer goods chain Drogerie Markt (dm), part of the German concern of the same name, reported on Wednesday a 16% growth in turnover to 1.29 billion kuna ($249.7 million/176.2 million euro) in the fiscal year 2006/2007 ending September, and announced that the concern plans to expand to European Union newcomers Romania and Bulgaria.
The company’s profit for the fiscal year 2006/2007 is expected to be more than 80 million kuna, approximately on the level of the previous year, the head of the Croatian unit of dm, dm Hrvatska, Mirko Mrakuzic told a news conference without elaborating.
“Dm plans to open its first store in Timisoara, Romania, by the end of November,” Mrakuzic said. As a pilot project, dm will initially open three stores in Romania and depending on their performance will decide on its further steps there.
Dm Hrvatska is a subsidiary of the Austrian unit of the German concern and the co-ordinator of the concern's expansion activities in southeastern Europe.
“I hope that in 2009 at the latest we will open our first store [in Bulgaria],” Mrakuzic told SeeNews after the conference. Besides central Europe, the concern is already present in Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Dm Hrvatska invested 69.7 million kuna last year. The largest part of these investments, 38 million kuna, went to expand its distribution centre in Zagreb. It runs a network of 94 stores in 40 Croatian cities. The Croatian company plans 61.5 million kuna in investments in the current fiscal year, part of which will go to open some 20 new stores. "We finance the investments with our working capital," Mrakuzic added.
According to the company’s estimates, it has some 20% share of the market of cosmetics and consumer goods in Croatia. Besides personal and home cosmetics, dm sells health food. It reported a 23% growth in the health food segment in Croatia last year.
(1 euro=7.3214 Croatian kuna)