In a sea of contradictory macroeconomic information and forecasts from economic analysts for this year, we aimed to clarify the actual business situation ‘on the ground’ and what signals are present for the remainder of the year. We asked the leaders of companies that are members of Lider’s Exporters Club whether this year is as stressful as the last or if they notice that the market situation is calming down, what recent trends are in their industry and how they are adapting, what their key business challenges are, and what signals they are receiving from their export markets.
Today, Denis Nemčević, CEO of Spider Grupa, answers our questions.
It seems to me that the market situation is calming down, meaning that some parameters are returning to levels they were at before the crisis. However, there have also been some parameters that have worsened compared to that period, but we can say that managing negative processes is much easier because we have been able to predict them and prepare in a timely manner, guided by experience and trend monitoring. We are no longer surrounded by uncertainty – now we can work with arranged pieces, some of which are good, and some are not.
In the production of medicinal herbs and teas, we do not see significant fluctuations and can confirm that trends are almost unchanged, meaning that changes are negligible. As a positive change, we can highlight the stabilization of energy prices, which is very significant for our industry. On the other hand, we are faced with a major disruption in capital prices, which have significantly increased, making it difficult to manage companies like ours that are preparing for large investments. We are preparing for the largest investment to date, which is expected to amount to approximately five million euros, and in this process, the key challenge will be the increasingly high capital prices.
