It cannot be a coincidence that three major retail chains, Billa, Diona, and Lidl, are somehow simultaneously getting new leadership.
While it may be somewhat exaggerated to say that an alliance is being formed to attack Konzum, we can certainly expect that the competition in the retail market for consumer goods will significantly intensify this year.
At the end of October, the Rewe Group appointed Mohamed Bouyaala as the head of Billa in Croatia, who also retained his position as Chief Operating Officer at Rewe International, under which Billa, Bipa, Merkur, and Penny operate. It is already evident that Billa in Croatia has gained a leader who will break the routine into which the company has slowly fallen in recent years. To start, Bouyaala announced the opening of several new stores in downtown Zagreb.
The Gavrilović family, owners of Diona, have brought Roko Vodopija to lead that chain at the beginning of this year. Although they have only briefly stated that his task will be to transform the company, Vodopija’s background speaks volumes about what is expected of him. He came to Diona from Bitola, where he spent four years restructuring the leading Macedonian dairy industry. Although Diona has had revenue growth far above the industry average in the past six years under the management of Slavica Maros Stipančić, it seems that the Gavrilović family has much bigger plans for her. The trend of customers returning to neighborhood stores certainly gives Diona a boost.
