Visiting neighbours

The Slovakian economy has certainly caught up with us. However, they are producing 8 per cent growth, while we are producing stagnation. We can see significant differences in their retail trade compared to Hungarian retail sector. Jednotas, the Slovakian equivalents of COOP stores are still the market leaders. Most of these are 200 square meter stores with a simple but friendly interiror. They have obviously recovered from the shock caused by the invasion of Western retail chains. Tesco is developing at a fast pace. They have 90 stores at the moment. However, many of these are small, 1000 square meter units. Our CBA also has approximately 560 franchise partners generating total sales of EUR 500 million, which translates to a market share of 9 per cent. Discount stores appeared here much later than in Hungary and they carry far less weight. Lidl however, is already here and Aldi is also coming. Hyper markets like Tesco, Kaufland, Hypernova, Carrefour are abundant in Bratislava and Kosice. Smaller private retail enterprises like Labas are stil popular in Slovakia. Apart from 10 supermarkets and 500 contracted partners, Mr. Labas also has a Cash & Carry store in Kassa which is unlike anything I have ever seen, as it is not a self-service unit. 150 attendants serve customers which guarantees that theft is not a problem… Regarding general assortments and consumption habits, Slovakia is quite close to us. Unfortunately, prices are also getting close to our prices,, but we can still get beer for HUF 50! Hungarian products are still common on Slovakian shelves. Sió fruit juice doubled its sales in 2007 and is sold not only in the Hungarian regions, but all over the country.Sadly, Hungarian wine has been displaced by Italian, French and even Chilean wines. On the other hand, Vénusz cooking oil is still popular.