Croatia's leading food and beverages producer, Atlantic Grupa, has decided to enter into a strategic partnership with the Vivas cafes chain which includes almost 300 coffeee shops and bars, the Zagreb-headquartered group said in a press release on Friday.

“The collaboration is a part of Atlantic’s well-defined strategy to take a leading position in the Croatian coffee market and achieve expansion in the growing segment of out of home consumption,” reads the press release.

In this way, Atlantic significantly strengthened the espresso coffee segment, which is expected to generate an additional eight million kuna in sales revenue thanks to the newly-established cooperation with Vivas led by former national football player, Dario Simic.

Atlantic produces 24,000 tonnes of coffee a year.

“With approximately 24 thousand tonnes of coffee produced annually, the Atlantic Gruap is the leading coffee producer in the region,” said Mate Stetic, the new General Manager of the SBU Coffee in Atlantic Group.

“We are the leading company in the Serbian market with our brand Grand kafa, the undisputed leader in Slovenia with the brand Barcaffè and an ambitious contender for the leading position in the Croatian market, where our market share has increased from 4 to the current 15.5 percent since the Atlantic’s acquisition of Droga Kolinska in 2010. With a share of almost 21 percent in total revenue, coffee is the largest individual business unit in Atlantic Grupa and certainly one of the strategically most important units for future business development,” Stetic was quoted as saying.