Croatia-based food group Atlantic Grupa is to take on the distribution of Unilever brands in its home market and in neighbouring Slovenia.

Atlantic Grupa will handle brands including Knorr, Bertolli and Hellmann’s in the two countries. The brands, which also include non-food products like Dove, generate annual sales of EUR32m on the two markets.

“It is a great acknowledgement when a successful international corporation that Unilever is, recognizes the value and the potential of distribution business we have been developing for over 20 years now, and decides to confidently give trust to our experienced management and distribution operations, with excellent service, customer relations and market expertise,” Atlantic Grupa president and CEO Emil Tedeschi said.

Harm Goossens, executive vice president for Unilever’s operations in central and eastern Europe, added: “Unilever is looking forward with great expectations to this cooperation with Atlantic Grupa in Slovenia and Croatia. We are strongly committed to these very important markets, and by signing this agreement with the leading distributor of the region we would like to strengthen our operations, accelerate growth, but most importantly serve our customers and consumers in a much higher quality than before.”