The days when the distribution of other people’s products was undoubtedly a lucrative business, as it was at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one when Stipo Matić founded M SAN, a company whose primary activity is the distribution of computer hardware, software, and consumer electronics, are long gone. At that time, competition in the Croatian IT equipment sales market was modest, with HG Spot leading the way, and online stores like Alibaba were still a decade away.
With a network of over 6,100 partners in the region and distribution agreements with more than fifty leading global brands of IT equipment and consumer electronics, distribution and logistics remain the primary activities of M SAN Grupa, a company established just two years after the founding of M SAN, to which its operations were transferred. The development strategy has been based from the beginning on strengthening the portfolio with all major globally recognized brands of IT equipment and consumer electronics, and in the last twenty years, since M SAN Grupa registered its first brand Vivax, a long-term strategic orientation step by step towards its own production has also been visible.
In its 28 years of existence, nothing in this company has happened suddenly or overnight. Observing its development from the outside, one gets the impression that its founder, probably the most modest among the not insignificant number of self-effacing Croatian entrepreneurs, plans every move for years, as if he has all the time in the world at his disposal. But perhaps we are mistaken. After all, this is a company that achieved total revenue of nearly 330 million euros last year, making it the largest Croatian company in the IT sector, three times larger than the next largest IT company in Croatia, King ICT, also owned by Stipo Matić, who is thus truly the king of the Croatian, but also the regional IT market.
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In the first half of its existence, M SAN Grupa was primarily focused on expanding its distribution activities in the region, along with logistics and service activities, either by establishing its own companies under the name Kim Tec or by acquiring local ones. Concurrently with the activities of expanding distribution in the region, they also began the development and production of their own brands, of which M SAN Grupa now has five in its portfolio, covering a very wide range of devices, computers, components, electric bicycles, and scooters.
Products under their own brands are manufactured in China, Turkey, Serbia, and Croatia.
The majority of production is realized in third-party facilities, while a smaller portion is produced in the facilities of MS Industrial, Matić’s joint venture company in China. In M SAN Grupa’s own facilities in Belgrade and Rugvica near Zagreb, personal computers under the MSGW brand and TVs under the Vivax brand are produced or assembled, and since last year, the assembly of electric bicycles under the MS Energy brand has also been relocated from China to the facilities in Rugvica. By the way, Vivax is one of the few European consumer electronics brands that manufactures its products on European soil.
The increasing importance of the strategy for developing its own brands can also be inferred from the fact that M SAN Grupa recently announced a binding offer to acquire the Bjelovar company Data Link, a small but high-tech company that develops its own products. Data Link has what it needs: the production of special LED lighting, electronics manufacturing, and project-oriented technological solutions for various global clients. M SAN Grupa, on the other hand, has what Data Link needs – a well-developed distribution network.
Read the entire article about M San Grupa in the digital or printed edition of Lider.
