It should not be excluded that other multinational companies are considering various business options in Croatia, including shutdowns, similar to what Meggle Hrvatska has announced. This was stated in an interview for Lider by the president of the Association of Foreign Investors Mladen Fogec, who discussed the business and investment climate on Friday with the president of the German-Croatian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Stefanie Zisk.
Fogec, who is also a member of the Board of Directors of that chamber, notes that Meggle’s move must be viewed much more broadly, not just because that company has been operating at a loss in Croatia in recent years.
– Meggle is a large and serious corporation on a global level, and its management certainly had a number of options, as stated by the company. They were, for example, a major supplier to airlines, and in a situation where air transport has drastically decreased due to the pandemic, revenue from that segment has fallen, as perhaps in some other segments. I assume they decided to cut the unprofitable part of the business, among which is their company in Croatia – says Fogec.
He does not exclude the possibility that other companies in foreign ownership may make such a decision in Croatia, but also those in domestic ownership. Companies are well-structured, he says, they work proactively, which means they plan months or a year in advance, and he is sure that each of them in the situation of the corona crisis has ‘plan A, B, and C’, as he expressed it, and one of those plans is readiness to withdraw from Croatia if it is assessed that it is the least painful for the company. The reason is uncertainty and unpredictability, which he agreed with the president of the German-Croatian Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
