When existing business deals create new business deals

At the end of the first quarter of last year, Nelt Group presented its business strategy for the following three years named “Accelerate 2025”. One of the goals of this acceleration is to identify new partners in distribution and logistics, including sustainable sources for growth with existing businesses.

In the last few years, for us in FMCG Serbia, new partners and businesses have almost become a part of everyday life. The largest regional and world manufacturers recognize the Nelt family integrity based on many years of knowledge and experience. The start of the distribution of Nestle and Kraš sales programs in 2021 is just the crown of trust that Nelt has gained and earned through dedicated work, professionalism, and constant striving to acquire new knowledge and skills and adapt to market circumstances.

“Great things in business are never done by one person. They are made by a team of people” – once said Steve Jobs, the biggest influencer among businessmen. It’s been eight years since I’ve been part of the Nelt Group, and working in several different positions within the sales sector, I had the opportunity to experience the truth of these words. What, I believe, is a special motivator for each of us to strive every day, to be better than yesterday, are precisely people. The teams we create, build, work with, and jointly make decisions and moves with long-term effects.

It is precisely the long-term perspective, which we cherish as one of the key corporate values, that gives us the right to now, for decades, have the best possible support in the form of our great partners with whom we started this journey as Nelt. A journey followed by acceleration. The acceleration that comes from the fact that existing business deals create new business deals.

At the end of the first quarter of the current year, during the presentation of the new strategy, we started discussions with our long-term partner Mondelez on the topic of taking over the distribution of a new sales program within the Mondelez product portfolio – Chipita, whose brands, such as 7 Days and Chipicao, are very well known on the Central and Eastern European market. Something new for us – and completely different compared to the entire FMCG distribution portfolio. Sales, delivery, and merchandising frequency that must meet the needs of such a portfolio – fast-moving products with a short shelf life. Products that are consumed on the go and that require availability at every step. A brand whose biggest competitors are traditional bakery products. Products with a very pronounced seasonality in sales. Products consumed by children, mothers, fathers, and grandparents.

I am very proud that with the right team, in an extremely short period, we managed to provide all the prerequisites from our side for a smooth start of distribution. The new business meant new people, new work organization, basic assets procurement, negotiations, and discussions with our customers, the existing distributor, and the old and the new business owner. Limited by time, encountering obstacles at every step, conscious and unconscious stumbling blocks, we overcame all challenges. Thanks to multifunctional teams and cross-sector support and cooperation, we again showed that this team jumps over all hurdles with accelerated steps. Special thanks to colleagues from the HR department, IT, supply chain, legal department, procurement, finance… and all the individuals who contributed to the integration of the new, with the existing Mondelez business, to reach our goals even faster.

We are slowly entering the last quarter of the current year. A quarter in which we need to confirm the excellent results we have achieved so far. The quarter in which we need to finalize successfully the foundation for the subsequent years. I believe, and I know, that the 7 Days brand will represent the backbone of our further growth and remind us all to sometimes stop, take a break, and enjoy the great sweet products and flavors of this brand that we now distribute!