Until a few years ago, fast food in Croatia was dominated by greasy ćevapi with or without soy, burek, gableci with flour roux, and of course, global brands, making it hard to even imagine, let alone dream, that craft burgers in brioche buns, something previously unknown to the local public, would cause any kind of turnaround. Perhaps precisely because of this – or despite it – Yellow Submarine has exceeded expectations. The founders, guys from Rijeka who were merely daydreaming, not only created a niche for craft burgers that many are now copying but also succeeded in something that the food preparation sector is not particularly adept at, at least not here – they managed to attract the attention of investors and thus secure the necessary funds for business expansion. With the support of the financial sector, Yellow Submarine is now expanding its operations beyond Croatian borders, proving that even in markets dominated by global players, there is room for entrepreneurial projects that bring authenticity and success. This means that a good idea and strategic vision, as well as concrete capital, can transform the market and extend beyond the confines of Croatia, even into the neighboring regions. Indeed, Yellow Submarine has recently made its first regional steps by acquiring Vivo, a chain of burger bars in Romania, and it does not intend to stop there.
One of the founders, Aleksandar Lazinica, realized that burgers are not and do not have to be junk food while living in America, in New York, where he became acquainted with the craft burger scene. The idea of launching something like this in Zagreb appealed to his friend, and later partner, Dragoljub Božović, and the duo embarked on the adventure together. At that time, Božović was working in a family business that dealt with wholesale and retail of household appliances, while Lazinica, an engineer in mechanical engineering and robotics, still runs Underline Science, a company for virtual scientific conferences, which he calls ‘Netflix for scientists’, and is also the founder of IntechOpen, a publisher of scientific open-access books. However, the hunger for a new challenge was stronger, so in 2014, after considerable preparation and work on the idea, they opened the first Submarine location on Frankopanska Street in Zagreb.
Market Education
Challenges were plentiful. First, it was necessary to educate the market about the product because people considered burgers to be junk food, or a cheap meal made from poor ingredients. Accordingly, they expected burgers to be cheap. Besides explaining to consumers why the price is what it is, it was also necessary to educate suppliers about the quality they were looking for. And what exactly they were looking for.
