LOGISTIC DISTRIBUTION CENTRES – BUSINESS SUCCESS FACTOR OF TRADING COMPANIES

In order to impact national, regional and global markets trading companies should establish logistic distribution centres. Their number, size, equipment, location, traffic and infrastructure connectivity, economic growth and the rise of consumer power on national, regional and global markets affects the development of logistic network and exploitation of trading company synergies. Special attention should be payed to positioning of logistic distribution centres, because market coverage depends on their strategic planning, and by that, the possibility of optimizing the logistic network and rapid response to consumer demands. To prove the hypothesis about logistic distribution centres as a decisive factor of business success of trading companies, methods of analysis and synthesis were applied, as were the mathematical and comparative method. The findings are based on analysis of a hypothetical example of optimizing the logistic network of a trading company by establishing a logistic distribution centre,but also on the analysis of several practical examples of establishing (national) logistic distribution centres of trading companies in Croatia. A particular object of research is the establishment of Lidl’s logistic distribution centre in Perusic.