For many people the names Bosnia or Kosovo are associated with ethnic strife and political instability. But for business leaders such as Ziga Debeljak they represent untapped opportunities offering the prospect of extraordinary returns.

The head of Mercator, Slovenia’s biggest retailer, has little doubt that expanding across the western Balkans is the logical way forward for his company – already one of the largest in the region in terms of sales and employees. Faced with tight margins at home and a saturated retail sector in central and western Europe, the markets of former Yugoslavia offer “above average growth potential”.