At the beginning of this year, a brand of mobile phones and tablets NOA entered the market of BiH. Group NOA, which is based in Sarajevo, is a strategic partner of Croatian companies Hangar 18 and has the regional authorization of the brand. This brand became recognizable in this area in a very short period of time and in cooperation with the company from Koprivnica, the original creator of the brand, they are making serious plans on the regional market.
After the entrance to the market of BiH at the beginning of this year, you announced the opening of a regional development center in Sarajevo. What is it about and what are the advantages?
According to the analysis that we performed before entering into a strategic partnership with the company Hangar 18 from Koprivnica, the market is simply searching for a serious and relevant partner in the segment of Open Market-Retail. To make our plans come to life, and they are for NOA to be, and it already is, a regional player in this segment of the business, we need to be adequately established and strategically and organizationally positioned.
This means that we have already started with the realization of the plan of establishing a development center for business and administrative technical support, which besides its primary function, will also be a distribution center for the region. Thus we will have business headquarters on 4,000 square meters, showroom and service center, technical support and central regional warehouse.
How much money is needed for the formation of the center? What are planned investments in BiH?
“NOA Group will, directly and indirectly, invest 15 million EUR in BiH. The first phase is the opening of the development and distribution center in which we will invest over 2 million EUR, and in the following period, we are planning together with Hangar to invest 13 million EUR in product development and market expansion. In order to achieve and maintain plans as the recognizable regional brand, we must have ambitious and professional employees. When we finish the business cycle, the NOA Group will employ more than 100 new people.
I want to emphasize that we will open an office in Banja Luka very soon, which will cover a wider region of Banja Luka and Bihac. We have already invested around one million EUR in BiH through brand positioning, market approach and equipping of the central office and service center.
Where is NOA today in the market of BiH? Where do you distribute your products?
“Our plan is to achieve 15-20 % market share in the business of smartphones in the region. Our primary goals are to establish ourselves and develop our brand and to achieve a healthy communication with end consumers and distributors as authorized sellers of NOA brand. A very important fact is that we directly control the sale for a suggested price, and therefore do not allow correction of prices.
(Source: ekapija.com)
