Studenac

Studenac is a proximity ("convenience") grocery brand built around small neighbourhood stores that cover everyday essentials right where people live. The stores have a deliberately tiny footprint and open in city blocks, villages, on islands and next to transit hubs, so shoppers can walk to them. Instead of big-box hypermarkets it runs a single standardised store concept, and it forms a dense small-format network in its home Croatian market, which the brand is gradually expanding across borders.

For the operator it runs an unusual "franchise without investment" system. Headquarters supplies practically everything that normally requires capital: the secured retail premises, the full fit-out and equipment, the merchandise and stock, the brand, the assortment and pricing, supply logistics, the loyalty programme, marketing, the POS and IT systems and added in-store services (bill payment, packaging deposit return, lottery, third-party delivery integration). The operator, by contrast, runs the store day to day — leading the local team and staff, customer service, stock handling and shelf availability, standards compliance, opening hours and shrinkage control. HQ opens the programme only in selected areas of its home market where it is currently looking for partners.