Plans for expansion in Slovenia and Croatia

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Back in the 1970s, aquarium hobbyists throughout the former Yugoslavia counted on the aquarium products developed by the ZadraveŠcs, who established their company ZAM in Hocé, near Maribor, in 1973. The products sold well and the couple expanded the range further to include aquarium accessories too. Following the change of regime in 1989, they founded the company Hobby Program, adding products for dogs, cats, birds and rodents to the range, and they supplied dealers all over what was once Yugoslavia. After Slovenia gained independence in 1991, the company concentrated exclusively on its customers there. Subsidiaries were opened in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia-Montenegro to be able to continue servicing its retail clients in those states too. Aquariums were still at the heart of the company’s business. Hobby Program was now supplying large retail chains, DIY stores and garden centres. Eventually the son of the company’s founders, Matjas ZadraveŠc, took over the firm and pushed ahead with expansion. It was clear to him that no further growth was possible with existing retail customers in Slovenia and Croatia; in particular, he considered the pet product trade in the two countries unsuitable to provide a reasonable distribution channel for the products of Hobby Program, as many of the pet shops were too small. In 1995 he therefore set up the “Tukano” chain, initially opening a 250 m² store in Maribor. Further stores soon followed, always with retail areas of up to 400 m² at a time when pet shops with 20 to 50 m² of retail space were the norm. The average size of most pet shops in Slovenia has been considerably less than 100 m² up to now, but “Tukano”, which has 14 outlets in Slovenia, recently opened a 1 500 m² store in Ljubljana. In Croatia, the first “Tukano” store opened in 2001 in Zagreb on a retail area of 400 m². Four further stores have opened to date. “There’s one of our stores in all key locations in Slovenia,” says Matjas ZadraveŠc proudly. The stores offer a complete range of products for pets as well as selling fish, small mammals and birds. Aquatics is the biggest-selling segment in all “Tukano” stores, along with the company’s private label dog and cat food. The stores stock over 3 500 products, chiefly derived from the range supplied by the parent company Hobby Program. Matjas ZadraveŠc indicates that further expansion of the “Tukano” speciality chain in Slovenia will…