Comprehensive Analysis of the Performance of the FMCG Trade Chains in the Republic of Serbia with a Focus on Retail Prices

Abstract

The business performance of FMCG trade chains in the Republic of Serbia came to the fore after the recently conducted investigation by the Commission for the Protection of Competition at the end of 2024 as well as after the mass boycott of large trade chains by consumers in the Republic of Serbia in February 2025. Do large retail chains in Serbia make extra profit? Are the price margins of large retail chains in Serbia unreasonably high? Are the prices on the domestic market significantly higher compared to the prices of the same products abroad? Is the FMCG trade sector in Serbia liquid, efficient and productive? This scientific work will try to answer these and other questions by analyzing a large number of business indicators of some of the largest trade chains in the Republic of Serbia. Indicators such as ROA, ROE, net profit margin, financial leverage, productivity coefficients, liquidity coefficients, short-term asset turnover rate, inventory turnover rate and others were used in the analysis. Gross margin and gross margin rate were used in order to analyze the size of price margins and the movement trend of those margins in previous years. The retail chains included in the analysis are the largest retail chains in the Republic of Serbia, therefore they are good represent of the entire branch. Analysed chains in this paper will not be mentioned by name, which will not diminish the importance of the analysis, since the subject of the analysis is the entire market. The aim of this work is to determine current situation and trends in the FMCG market, as well as to determine the adequacy and justification of the price policy of large retail chains in the Republic of Serbia.