The dailies Finance and Delo have reported that Croatia's Agrokor, the owner of retailer Konzum and as of June of Konzum's former Slovenian rival Mercator, is pressuring Mercator's suppliers into giving up 10% of the revenues secured last year through the two grocers.
While Agrokor has denied the reports, unnamed suppliers, which are preparing for the start of negotiations on contracts for next year, told the papers they have been "proposed" by Agrokor to help consolidate the retail network in the region by transferring 10% of last year's revenue to a special account.
"Agrokor's retailers...are calling on their suppliers to present to them their strategy, vision and operations. All presentations meet the highest European standards and will continue to do so in the future," Delo meanwhile summed up the reaction of Agrokor, which says no demands for payments had been issued.
The paper, which said that the same approach was reportedly also used for the main Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian suppliers, indeed adds that no demands are stated, "nor is there any clear explanation of the consequences of failing to pay".
"It is only clear that paying provides no guarantee for shelf access in the coming year, as the signing of the commercial contracts is still pending," Delo says.
The daily Dnevnik has meanwhile calculated that given that Mercator alone generates around EUR 0.5bn in revenues for Slovenia's food industry, the new commission would secure Agrokor up to EUR 50m.
This roughly equals what Agrokor paid to Slovenia's state owned NLB and NKBM banks for their 16% stake in Mercator and only EUR 10m less than Agrokor owner Ivica Todorić needs to pay back to the Croatian tourism-through-tobacco group Adris grupa by the end of this year.
Dnevnik says that Slovenia's food industry would not be able to handle such a burden and the sale could also backfire for the banks, since the food companies are their clients.
Source: SloveniaTimes
