Suppliers Owed Over €100 Million in Croatia

A total of 26 companies, including Croatia’s largest supermarket chain, owe nearly 884 million kuna (116 million EUR) in unpaid bills where payment has already passed their deadlines, reports daily Novi list.

Heading the list is supermarket chain Mercator Croatia, who owe 309 million kuna (40 million EUR), followed by Croatian supermarket giants Konzum, owned by Croatia’s largest privately owned company Agrokor, who owe suppliers 158 million kuna (20 million EUR).

“Along with that Konzum have nearly 1 billion kuna (131 million EUR) outstanding in obligations which they have not yet paid. A large part of it is probably in the form of credit, “writes Novi list.

Another Agrokor company, Tisak, are 131 million kuna (17 million EUR) in arrears, with 120 million kuna of it passed the 30 day period. Although most large chains in Croatia openly ignore the 60-day payment period , there are those who do pay their suppliers on time. DM, Kozmo, Lidl, Fero-Term and Spar Croatia all fall into that category. Minister of Finance Slavko Linić announced last month that new tough penalties will be introduced to those companies, and also individual managers guilty of abusing the law and not paying suppliers on time.