The British are closing all five Marks&Spencer stores in Croatia

The British fashion brand Marks&Spencer is withdrawing from Croatia after eight years in our market. All five stores will close in January 2016, with the main reason being commercial unprofitability.

Namely, the British brand has been operating at a loss in Croatia for five consecutive years. Last year alone, according to data from Poslovna Hrvatska, Marks&Spencer recorded revenue of 30.5 million kuna, while simultaneously generating a loss of 6.5 million kuna. The largest loss was recorded in 2012 at 10.6 million kuna.

– After a thorough analysis, we had to make the difficult decision to close five stores in Croatia in January 2016 because they are not commercially viable. The decision was not made lightly, and we are aware of how it affects our employees and consumers in Croatia. We are committed to supporting our employees during this process – explained the company led by Robert Swannell.

As we unofficially learn, all 35 employees will be out of work on the first day of the next year, but a few have received the opportunity to continue their careers in franchise stores in other countries, such as Romania, and even the United Kingdom.

In Croatia, the brand is present in Zagreb’s Avenue Mall, Arena Center, West Gate, and Kaptol Center, as well as in Rijeka’s Tower Center. Marks&Spencer entered Croatia in 2007, thanks to the Greek representative company Marinopoulus. This company brought to Croatia, in addition to the British clothing brand, the American fashion brand Gap and the French cosmetics chain Sephora, both of which have already closed their doors here.

Marinopoulus announced back in 2010 the arrival of the well-known American coffee chain Starbucks in Croatia, and even conducted selection procedures for employment, but very quickly abandoned it under the pretext that ‘Croats drink coffee sitting down, not on the go’, although many speculated that the real reason was the poor standard of living of citizens. The British parent company of Marks&Spencer acquired a 50% stake in Croatia from Greek partners in 2011, gaining full ownership of all five stores, and although it was speculated that a stronger marketing expansion of the brand and positioning in the market would follow at that time, this did not happen due to poor business results.