The funds will be invested in design and rebranding of products.
The Competence centre for developing innovative wood products CEKOM Spin, which is headed by the Spin Valis company from Požega, has received confirmation that it has fulfilled the required criteria and can therefore apply for a grant for support of development of such centres in Croatia, reports seebiz.eu on March 14, 2017.
The investment will amount to about 10 million euros during a period of five years. At the state level, as much as 110 million euros have been set aside for support to competence centres. As the projects are developed, that amount will grow further. The goal is to give companies the opportunity to improve their products through such centres.
Although the state is the main stakeholder in most competences centres, there are exceptions, like this one in Požega, where the main stakeholder is a company which has signed a consortium agreement with its business partners, which are all companies involved in the production of furniture. Spin Valis has involved several subcontractors in its business operations. For example, one of them is a company that specializes in metal, while another other specializes in upholstery. The project also involves several higher education institutions, including the Department of Design of the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb, as well as the Ministry of Economy, Business and Trade.
“Based on the Slavonian oak, we will work on a project that links investments in the design, a furniture collection, rebranding and in our products. We want to change the routes of sales and distribution, which have so far been focused on larger retailers and large importers, towards smaller, specialized stores. That would include our own delivery service for our products, maintenance services and sales”, explains Zdravko Jelčić, CEO of Spin Valis. “These are top products. The goal is to have products which are commercial, but which at the same time represent a novelty, a trend, and are innovative. So, these are the products of high value”, he explains.
It is a concept at the EU level, designed to help manufacturers achieve greater competitiveness and be able to deal with manufacturers from the Far East thanks to products with large added value, and based on investments in research and development. “The principle is to develop a joint project with state or local government, academia and the real sector”, concludes Jelčić.
