As part of a new business orientation and a return to retail as its core business, the Karlovac “Tekstil” d.d. opened today on the second floor of its department store “Karlovčanka” a furniture showroom supplied by Lesnina XXXL.
The director of “Tekstil”, Hrvoje Bačić, stated that the newly arranged showroom, which spans an area of one thousand square meters, is the result of collaboration with Lesnina and is based on a franchise relationship between “Tekstil” and Lesnina Hrvatska. To kick off the showroom’s operations, six experienced furniture salespeople have been newly employed. In addition to a special three-day discount on custom-ordered furniture, larger monthly discounts will be advertised for furniture featured in special catalogs.
Suzana Martić, the director of wholesale at Lesnina Hrvatska d.o.o., stated that Lesnina, which has been part of the world’s second-largest furniture retail chain, the Austrian Lutz XXXL, since 2010, is expanding its sales network in Croatia on two levels.
– Lesnina Hrvatska is expanding through its main centers and franchise showrooms. In total, we have seven main centers in Croatia: Jankomir and Sesvete in Zagreb, as well as in Split, Rijeka, Osijek, Varaždin, and Čakovec. With the opening of the franchise showroom in the “Karlovčanka” department store in collaboration with “Tekstil”, Lesnina XXXL has expanded its network to a total of nine franchise showrooms in Croatia, which also include two showrooms in Pula, as well as those in Slavonski Brod, Koprivnica, Zabok, and several other cities. Thus, where we are not present with larger main centers, we are entering into franchise agreements with local trading partners, such as “Tekstil” in Karlovac. In addition to expanding our own brand through such franchise relationships, we have practically covered the entire Croatia, where we are now leading in furniture retail. Globally, we are second within the Lutz XXXL group, behind the ubiquitous IKEA. Given the upcoming entry of a global “player” like IKEA into the Croatian market, we are, of course, preparing our response in terms of competitiveness. After all, Lesnina has adapted its offerings and assortment according to the purchasing power of Croatian consumers during the previous period since the onset of the crisis. There is definitely a market battle ahead, which we believe will recover along with purchasing power, but I am not authorized to speak about the details, as that is not my area at Lesnina Hrvatska, said Suzana Martić.
In response to a question about the benefits that Croatia’s entry into the European Union should bring to the entire Lesnina system within the Lutz XXXL group, Suzana Martić says that some more visible positive changes are expected, primarily regarding the alignment of legal regulations.
– Specifically, this mainly relates to the issues of aligning interpretations regarding whether various products in our offering should continue to undergo testing, as we have had to do until now at a high cost, or whether the tests already conducted and obtained by suppliers for the same products will be valid. These are significant items that affect the price of the item; for example, testing for one TC wardrobe costs 500 euros, and for each item we have in the showroom, we must have the appropriate tests, which are conducted by the authorized company Euroinspekt-drvokontrola, and pay for them again in Croatia, despite the fact that they mostly already came with tests according to European standards (EN) from the manufacturer or supplier. On the other hand, now that Croatia is also in the customs union, and the majority of our suppliers are from the EU area, we expect a noticeable reduction in costs as there are no customs duties or related shipping costs, as well as simplification and acceleration of the goods delivery system, said Suzana Martić.
