A New Association of Traders is Being Established Under the Direction of Davor Majetić, Former Director of HUP

Since the beginning of the year, when large companies Orbico, Fortenova Group, and Adris withdrew from the Croatian Employers’ Association, there has been talk of establishing some sort of parallel association that would serve as a counterpart to HUP. Given that nothing concrete has happened for a long time, almost everyone has resigned themselves to the idea that nothing will come of it. However, as we unofficially learn, today the Founding Assembly of the new association will be held, which will not be a parallel HUP but an independent Association of Traders that is expected to initially gather 10 to 20 large trading companies.

The main operational founder is Davor Majetić, the former director of HUP, who has had a new employer for the past five months, F.O. Group, which manages the Westgate shopping center. Majetić works there as a member of the Management Board for business development and key clients. Majetić did not respond to our phone call, but this information was confirmed to us by the owner of F.O. Group Denis Čupić, who emphasized that he did not hire Majetić due to good cooperation in HUP but rather for the experience he gained at Microsoft. His company is preparing several projects closely related to digitalization.

He also confirmed the establishment of the new Association of Traders, adding that there are about 20 founders and that after the constitutive assembly, a broader invitation will follow for other companies to join, along with a press release that will include the names of the founders of the new Association.

– The idea is to unite the trading sector and the logistics industry in the Association, which will lobby and fight for their interests through an independent body. In recent years, the problems of traders have always been grouped with the problems of other sectors, and in the end, everyone else fares better than us who remain in the ‘crossfire’ – emphasized Čupić, adding that the new Association will be independent of HUP and HGK, ‘so that we are not hostages to broader views.’ As an example, he cited the payment of fees for renewable energy sources, where traders and logisticians pay the maximum amounts, while compensatory measures apply to all other sectors.

The new Association will also be joined by Orbico, which was confirmed to us by Branko Roglić, Emmezeta, which was confirmed to us by Slobodan Školnik, and it is to be assumed that Konzum, or companies operating within the Fortenova Group, which also withdrew from HUP, will join as well.

According to Roglić, the Association of Traders is just the first step; there are plans to establish similar independent associations from the banking sector, manufacturing, and tourism, in order to eventually create a ‘confederation’ modeled after Austrian associations. Čupić, however, does not have such information and says that the current focus is exclusively on the trade sector, but he does not rule out later connections with some existing associations in the market, such as the Association of Digital Publishers, tourism, etc.

The lobbying potential of just the three mentioned companies (revenues of Orbico, Konzum, and Emmezeta from Business Croatia), which will be members of the new Association, is now close to 14 billion kuna, and it will be interesting to see whether traders like Spar and Schwartz Group will remain in HUP, switch to another camp, or protect their interests through two associations.

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