| Even though the arrival of the German company "Lidl" in Serbia has been in the media since 2012, the construction of its first store in Smederevo was completed only in late 2015. However, further construction has recently begun on an additional four locations, namely, Belgrade, Bor, Zrenjanin, and Šabac. The work on the rest of the projects, in this first stage of construction, is planned to commence during the summer of 2016 in cities including Novi Sad, Smederevo, Niš, Kruševac and Subotica. The second stage would involve the construction of another 10 stores, since the company's plan is to have a simultaneous opening of all 20 stores in March 2018 – despite previous reports of planned partial openings. In addition to the mentioned stores, a distribution centre with national coverage will be built as well, in the town of Nova Pazova. Looking at the deeper implications of Lidl's presence in the Serbian market, it has been reported that the German company will be providing around 1000 jobs once the objects are up and running, with long-term plans of expanding that number through the opening of up to 100 stores in total across the country.
Government officials have also stressed the importance of the Lidl deal as evidence of the constantly improving business environment in Serbia for foreign investors, as well as an example of the continuation of good commercial relations with Germany. Apart from the aforementioned job openings, there is another positive note to be found in the strategic partnerships that Lidl is planning to make with Serbian producers and farmers, who will in turn be able to supply Lidl's global network of stores with their own products and have them exported and sold around the world. Lidl is a retail chain that has been operating under this name since 1930 and it currently has stores in 26 European countries, including an already established presence in Slovenia and Croatia, along with further plans of global expansion. |