COMPARANCE BETWEEN SLOVENE AND BRITISH STORES
In our presentation you will be presented with two different shop groups: british Harrods and slovenian Merkur. We will describe the actual choice of products, advantages and disadvantages from both companies.
The Merkur Group
Merkur has become the synonym for a quality dealer in technical products for domestic and industrial applications, all available at one place. Merkur has become the Slovenian market leader in sales of home products and DIY, electro-installation materials, apparatuses and appliances, machinery and tools, ferrous and non-ferrous metal products, and industrial items for professional use. Even more, the company has successfully affirmed the Merkur trademark not only in Slovenia, but also abroad. Merkur has attained a 20 to 50% market share in Slovenia in sales of individual programmes, and plans to reach a leading position on target markets in the years to come.
Merkur was established in 1896 and has grown into the very successful Merkur Group. The Group employs almost 4,000 staff. In addition to the parent company Merkur, d. d., the Group consists of fourteen companies in Slovenia and abroad.
110 Years of Development and Experience
Merkur celebrates a jubilee in 2006: the 110th anniversary of its founding. Peter Majdic, a trader and an industrialist, established a small shop in 1896, and since then Merkur has grown into a successful European trading organisation.
Organisation sheme of group Merkur
Company Merkur, d. d., is the major company of group Merkur. The group is combined from another 3 slovenian companies and 11 foreign companies, plust there are also two representatives in Beograd and Rusia.
Sales centres
Merkur has designed modern and shopper-friendly sales centres, which make shopping a pleasant adventure. The sales centres are divided into two types offering a complete range of products. MERKURDOM offers products for households and leisure, whilst MERKURMOJSTER sells products primarily targeting DIY users, and companies. MERKUR sales centres successfully combine both types at one location.
The Merkur retail comprises 35 sales centres in Slovenia, eight in Croatia, one in the capital city of Serbia, and a small outlet in Macedonia. Merkur's subsidiary Bofex has become a leading specialist dealing in audio and video appliances, and computer hard- and software. Bofex owns another 19 Big Bang sales centres, which are all included in the Group as well. Twenty-one Merkur franchise outlets in Slovenia, two in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and two online shopping sitesnakup.merkur.si and www.bof.si- complement the sales network.
Salesment program
Merkurs' Sale program is very dynamic. It's formed from over 700 different groups of goods with approximatly 200.000 products. Many home and foreign brands and good *asortiment* are their guaranty, that the choise and quality of products from Merkur are worthy of both trust aswell as attantion from buyers. The salesment program is formed of: Chemical and Paper Products, Consumer Goods, Construction Materials and Wood, Installation and Electro-Materials, Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metal Products, Technical Goods for Domestic and Industrial Applications.
Complete Services
A wide variety of products for home and workshop are supplemented by numerous services. They will make doing the shopping easier and more comfortable. We hope you will enjoy the experience.
Harrods
Harrods is the largest store in Europe with goods displayed in 60 windows and 5,5 hectares of selling space. On one year over 14 million purchases are made in the 214 departments where you can buy anything from a pin to an elephant- if you can convince the manager of the pet Department that you are a suitable elephant owner, that is. It is Harrods policy to stock a wide and exciting range of merchandise in every department to give the custumer a choice of goods which is unique in its variety and which no other store can match: Harrods stocks 100 different whiskies, including 57 single malts, 450 different cheeses, 500 types of shirts and 9000 ties to go with them, 8000 dresses and 150 different pianos.
Harrods also offers a number of special services to its custumers including a bank, an insurance department, a travel agency, London s last circulating library, a theater ticket agency and a funeral service. 40 million worth of goods are exported annually from Harrods and the Export Department can deal with any customer purchase or order and will pack and send goods to any addreess in the world. Recently, for example, six bread rolls were sent to New York, a Mediterranean, a Persian carpet to Iran and a 5000 chess set to Australia. Harrods has a world-wide reputation for first-class service. It has a staff of 4000 rising to 6000 at Christmas time.
Harrods sells 5 million different products not all of which are actually kept in stock in the store itself. To handle this enormous range, a new computerised warehouse is being built. It will be the largest warehouse in Britain and the second largest in Europe and will deal with a wider range of goods than any other distribution centre in the world. Thanks to its modern technology a customer will be able to order any product (for example, a dining table or a dishwasher) from any assistant in the store. The assistant will be able to check its availability immediately on a computer screen, decide with the customer on a suitable delivery date and time and then pass the order directly to the warehouse through the computer. The time of delivery will be guaranteed to within one hour.
For many of London s visitors Harrods is an important stop on their sightseeing programme. Henry Charles Harrod s first shop was opened in 1849, but the building as it stands today was started in 1901 and it has become one of London s landmarks. It has many items of architectural interest: the plastef ceilings are original, as is the famous Meat Hall with its Victorian wall tiles, and the light fittings on the ground floor date back to the 1930s. A morning spent strolling round Harrods is guaranteed to give any shopper an appetite, and to feed its customers Harrods has six restaurants, ranging from the Circle self-service restaurants offering delicious food at reasonable prices to the famous Harrods Restaurants, where queues from every afternoon for the »Grand Buffet Tea«, which for a fixed price allows you to eat as many cream cakes and gateaux as your greed will allow while waitresses serve you with India or China tea. If you feel like a drink you can choose between the pub atmosphere of the Green Man Tavern and the sophistication of the Cocktail Lounge. Harrods truly is a different world.
