As Filip Pavic/Novac writes on the 15th of November, 2019, Josip Roglić, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Orbico Group and the son of the owner of the Orbico company, Branko Roglić, has now founded the Croatian-Polish Development Association, which was founded with the aim of expanding economic, scientific, educational and cultural ties between Croatia and Poland.
''Having participated in the family business for the last five years, I've travelled a lot to Warsaw and it occurred to me to establish an association that would connect Croatian and Polish businesses,'' explained Josip Roglić, who is also the President of the Association, and recently the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland.
In cooperation with Wojcicech Wojewódzki, a Polish real estate consultant and the operational director of this Croatian-Polish Association, Roglić gathered around twenty representatives of both Polish and Croatian companies in Orbica's headquarters, who all met and agreed on future cooperation opportunities.
Michał Kędzia, one of the partners in the Polish Enterprise Investors Fund, which took over two leading bakery companies last year, Mlinar and Pan-Pek, as well as the Studenac retail chain, noted that he was interested in investments and projects in tourism.
Seated opposite him, Robert Kavazović Horvat, a Croatian collector and more recently the owner of a small craft brewery, Agram craft, explained that his motives for joining the Croatian-Polish Development Association are expanding into the Polish market.
''We currently produce a small amount of beer, about 1.6 million litres per year, we're present on the Croatian and Serbian markets. We're looking forward to potentially expanding our business to Poland,'' he noted.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of retailers, Andrej Sitarz, Chief Financial Officer of Emmezeta furniture and Ana Košćina, owner of the Croatian company Futurum oleum, a franchise partner of INA. From the banking sector, Zoran Kureljušić, Executive Director of the ATM network for PBZ, also provided support to the new association and made himself available for projects in the future. The same was done by Bartholomew Pastva, a representative of the largest Polish port operator OT Logistics, majority owner of the Port of Rijeka.
The gathered agreed that the association would be financed solely by the good will of its members and that they would communicate and make potential contacts through a Facebook group.
In addition to the above, Branko Roglić and Dagmara Luković, the first advisor to Poland's Ambassador to Croatia, Andrzej Jasionowski, also attended the first session of the Croatian-Polish Development Association.
''It is an honour, we've invested in Poland and I know how strong the Croatian-Polish friendship is. What Josip is doing is not only developing friendly relationships, but also business relationships. We hope that this association will foster the cooperation of Polish companies, not only with Orbico, but also with other companies in Croatia,'' said Branko Roglić.
It's worth mentioning that Orbico is otherwise the largest Croatian investor in Poland, with over 500 million euros in investments so far.
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