First Draft

must follow as pointed out by Mr Hrstić refer to the

fact that smaller shopping chains are becoming

more successful than the large ones suggesting

stronger competition among the participants on

the retail market. Besides, concentration trends on

the retail market are on one hand characterized by

takeovers while, on the other hand local traders

expand their operations to other counties becoming

in that way increasingly important on the national

level. In addition to the ownership concentration,

their bargaining power is increased because of

interest groups created for the purpose of joint

purchasing and stronger competivity in relation

to the market leader. An increasing number of

shopping chains are opening their own baking

production within their selling locations. However,

even from the position of buyers they gain

considerable added value which, with easy access

to information and many other benefits offered by

other participants of the bakery industry, makes

their bargaining power stronger and they are well

aware of that. In support to the strong position of

buyers there is the fact that bakery products are

similar and replaceable without differentiating

factors which allows the buyers to change suppliers

very easily with minimum costs.

A particular feature of bakery products is that they

are consumed on a daily basis. For that reason

traders want to make sure that the quality of their

offer attracts consumers and that they come to

their shops every day. Besides, the intensity of

rivalry among buyers is very strong diminishing

their profitability and resulting in the pressure on

suppliers in order to reduce costs. The mentioned

reasons explain why Hrstić bakery craft distributes

the