Retailer Big Bang expanding to Serbia
Big Bang, Slovenia's largest retailer of consumer electronics, has signed a deal to acquire Serbian online retailer BC Group, aiming to become the region's leading online marketplace for consumer electronics.
Announcing the deal on 25 August, Big Bang said it was still subject to the regulatory approval. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
Uroš Mesojedec, Big Bang CEO, the deal meant the Big Bang group "will gain important know-how in online sales and will be able to benefit from synergies in purchasing, logistics and business digitalisation".
The acquisition of BC Group is expected to contribute to the company's efforts to achieve the ambition of becoming a regional online market leader in "a big way".
Last year, BC Group generated €35 million in revenue. The company wants to increase the figure to more than €90 million over the next five years, a target for which it needed a suitable business partner, said Oleg Kulidžan, director and current majority owner of BC Group.
He expects that the acquisition will result in the growth of the company's product portfolio and the improvement of its logistics and customer experience.
The Big Bang group continues to expand its presence in the region after acquiring Croatian company Sancta Domenica last year. Once the latest deal is approved, the group will have almost 700 employees, and the plan is to generate more than half a billion euro in revenue by 2028, reads the company's press release.
Big Bang posted a record €270 million revenue for 2022. The group's origins date back to 1991, but the brand was created two years later, when the first shop was opened in Ljubljana. Currently, the company has around 17 shops in Slovenia.
Since September 2018, the Big Bang owner has been the company Bidigital, which is owned by Adventura Investments, whose biggest owner is businessman Darko Klarič. Bidigital acquired Big Bang as part of the Merkur bankruptcy for €18.6 million.