Varionica Craft Brewery Expands Sales Network and Strengthens Presence
November the 12th, 2020 - The Varionica craft brewery has been operating successfully since 2014, when only the founders Matija Mrazek and Davor Simicic worked there, and today it boasts seven employees. The coronavirus pandemic hasn't been kind to any business, with lockdowns and strict measures hindering normality, but this Croatian brewery has fought on.
As Marta Duic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, over the last year, the Varionica craft brewery has opened their own production plant in Pisarovina with the help of European Union (EU) funds, thanks to which they plan to expand production and create even more products. In addition, this year, they launched six new beers and collaborated with chef Mato Jankovic on their Papak beer, as well as with the only Zagreb restaurant with a Michelin star - the much loved Noel.
Like many entrepreneurs, they didn't sit back and admit defeat during the unprecedented spring lockdown, but instead they launched their own webshop and expanded the network of caterers and hospitality facilities they work with.
''We started brewing beer as a hobby during college on a small home plant that we designed ourselves. After several years of experimenting, we decided to open one of the first craft breweries in Croatia and we rented a small plant in Medjimurje in order to do so. The idea arose out of love for a good beer that couldn't be bought here in Croatia at the time. Travelling around the world, we'd discovered that there are numerous styles of beer out there and that the story of beer is much more complex than the industrial lagers in our market. Since only some Belgian and German beers worth mentioning were available in our country, we decided to produce beer ourselves,'' Matija Mrazek of the Varionica craft brewery explained, warmly recalling their beginnings.
He and Davor Simicic then did everything themselves - from creating, bottling, selling and marketing on their own, and to this day they've designed 25 different beers. Most of the raw materials are imported because Croatia does not have what their production requires.
''We import our hops, malts and yeasts from the USA, Germany, Belgium and the Czech Republic. From Croatia we use Badass Barley malt from Nova Gradiska, peppers from Volim Ljuto and coffee from the Lively Roasters company. We'd like to cooperate with many more Croatian producers, but unfortunately they don't exist,'' explained Mrazek. For five years, they produced the Varionica craft brewery beer in a rented plant in Donji Vidovac, and at the end of last year they opened their own plant thanks to an EU grant worth an impressive 1.5 million euros. With that relocation, they quadrupled their production capacities and it currently stands at 40,000 litres per month.
''We started out with only one product on the market, pale ale, which is still our most popular beer today. Of the 25 styles made so far, 11 are currently on offer. Each beer is specific to its ingredients and the aromas they provide. We often use various additives like fruits and spices to show that beer can be a very exciting drink. We're constantly planning new beers and by the end of the year we'll definitely be rolling out at least one more. Since we're big lovers of food and drink, we're constantly thinking about new products, so we recently started a whiskey production project with our first craft distillery - Brigljevic,'' revealed Mrazek.
The last two of their presented products are closely related to gastronomy. In collaboration with the Zagreb restaurant Noel, they created a special sour beer with passion fruit, coriander and sea salt that goes well with oily fish and poultry, and after the lockdown, they decided to make Papak beer with Mato Jankovic, a very drinkable Czech pilsner. With each bottle sold, they donate 50 lipa for the education of young caterers at the Buda Foodie Foundation of chef Rudolf Stefan.
''Currently, our beers are available in Konzum, Kaufland, Spar, Vrutko, Prehrana, Trgocentar, ROTO and in special gastro and beer shops. We cooperate with many restaurants throughout Croatia, mostly in Zagreb. Since HoReCa is our biggest sales channel, we had huge losses during the lockdown, but we introduced home delivery and opened a webshop in record time, so that kept us alive,'' noted Mrazek. He claims that due to the pandemic, the Varionica craft brewery completely and quickly changed their business in order to adapt.
''In a short time, we launched our online sales and arranged listings in more than 150 retail locations across Croatia. We managed to launch some new products and recorded a significant increase in sales compared to last year. We're not exporting yet, but we're in negotiations with some European and distant countries, we're waiting for the situation with the coronavirus to stabilise a bit so that we can start working. In the future, we'll definitely focus on exporting and producing new styles. Our curiosity never gives us a break, you can expect a lot of styles of beer from us,'' concluded Matija Mrazek.
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Croatian Campaign Uses Trump's Likeness, Attracts Attention
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes on the 11th of November, 2020, the eyes of the entire whole world have been on the United States over recent days, where the US presidential election was being held, with the American public being asked to choose between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which eventually, although still unofficially, ended in Biden's victory. One Croatian campaign has used Trump's situation to their advantage, and it has paid off.
The final course of the election was accompanied by a new, witty Croatian campaign by the online employment platform Adorio and the Spellcaster creative agency, with the image of President Trump leaving the White House with a box of his private belongings with the message "Got Fired?". On that occasion, Poslovni spoke with the founders of the Adorio.hr platform, brothers Danijel and Josip Burazer. The feedback they received after this unusual Croatian campaign, they say, has so far been very positive, and the number of visitors to their platform tripled on the first day alone.
An innovative and well-timed Croatian campaign
''We were looking for an innovative campaign that portrayed our platform well. The goal was to create a modern recruitment platform, so we developed an advanced search engine that searches for job advertisements on the Internet. Ads on the platform are free, the goal is to have the largest number of ads in Croatia and provide users with a platform where they can find all the ads in one place. We also offer information about employers, average salaries, as well as an occupation guide in which employees of individual companies present their occupation in five questions through a video interview. Such an guide serves young people as educational content that can help them develop their business careers,'' explain Danijel and Josip, whose wish was for their platform, which they started two years ago, to become the leading one for employment in all of Croatia. Therefore, they gradually began to develop a new concept for job searching that could separate them from other portals.
"We believe that with such an approach, we'll have the largest number of ads and thus the largest number of users, which has doubled in the last year and now we have more than 200,000 a month," reveal Danijel and Josip.
New search engine
For employers, they've developed a new candidate search engine that searches candidates on business social networks with comprehensive labour market analysis. "So far, we've only presented new products to selected employers. We asked them for their feedback in order to find out what else we needed to improve. Now we're done with the platform and that's why we started with this strong Croatian campaign and sales,'' explain the brothers, whose goal is to raise people's awareness of the portal, attract new partners, have as many job ads as possible and move from market challenger to leader.
''We're also developing an occupation guide because we want to offer visitors extra content and useful information when they're searching for jobs. The idea is to organise more than 200 video interviews,'' explain the brothers. According to data from the platform, the demand for labour is still more than 20 percent lower than it was last year.
"We're entering November and December when the demand for labour even in normal times decreases by 25 percent in November and 45 percent in December, so we'll probably not be able to make a good conclusion about the recovery of the labour market towards the end of the year. We shouldn't be afraid if the demand for labour drops significantly during December now, because this was the rule even before the coronavirus crisis struck. For better estimates of the labour market, we'll need to wait until the second week of January, which will be a key indicator of recovery,'' they state, adding that the number of unemployed people according to the CES is now around 154,000, and according to Adorio, they don't expect that figure to exceed 160,000 if job preservation measures continue to be used.
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Investments and Employment - Zagreb Company Infinum to Work with Porsche
November the 12th, 2020 - The Zagreb company Infinum is set to create for no less than the automotive giant Porsche, a move which will be accompanied by the opening up of new employment opportunities and an enormous investment.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tanja Ivancic writes on the 11th of November, 2020, the Zagreb company Infinum has been operating within the IT sector for 15 years now, and its last venture, ie the launch of yet another new company, opened up yet more doors for them.
''My mum taught me how to drive when I was just 15. I always tell the story of how it took me several days to learn to ride a bike - on the other hand, it only took me a few minutes to learn to drive a car. I’ve always loved cars, motorcycles and actually everything on wheels. There's something beautiful in the common nature of engineering, design and passion that cars bring together in one place. And no car brand in the world does it better than Porsche, and it's the same feeling in starting a new company and doing business with our new partners Porche Digital,'' announced Tomislav Car, co-owner and CEO of the Zagreb company Infinum.
Namely, Infinum, a Zagreb company engaged in software design and development, and Porsche Digital, a subsidiary of the huge German sports car manufacturer Porsche, launched a new company back in September - Porsche Digital Croatia. It is a digital technology development centre that, as was announced, will employ 100 professionals over the next three years to work on software design and development, artificial intelligence and machine learning, developing products and services that will work to further enhance the digital ecosystem.
Mate Rimac was the glue
In the new company, partners Infinum and Porsche Digital have equal ownership shares, and according to their current business plans, as much as 10 million euros will be invested in the company and product development.
''The automotive market is progressively adapting to new technologies and business models, so those who are triggering changes today will shape the digital market in the long run,'' said Tomislav Car, CEO of the Zagreb company Infinum, explaining that he will develop products in two main directions: one part refers to digital products which will be used by buyers and potential buyers of cars, and the second part will be related to production and other internal processes.
At the same time, the already wildly successful Zagreb company will continue to develop digital products for their customers. The leaders of Porsche Digital, which has offices all over the world, were contacted by the Infinum family through no less than Mate Rimac. As Car recounted, they ''clicked'' very quickly and realised that they were thinking similarly about technology and business.
''I hope that our cooperation will bring knowledge from Germany that we may not have yet and that together we will continue to develop such an ecosystem in Croatia,'' stated Car.
It's worth noting that the talented Tomislav Car founded Infinum back during his student days, fifteen years ago. He described this Zagreb company's very early beginnings on his website back in 2012.
''Matej Spoler, my colleague and co-founder of Infinum, and I met at high school in Karlovac. We both loved creating new things, which by chance were related to technology. There was everything, from software for PC, mobile phones and the web, and even a few avant-garde projects. I remember when Matej built water cooling for his computer to optimise the computer cooling process, and I built a computer into the boot of my first car in order to always have a large collection of music with me,'' recalls Car.
40 percent growth
Since then, the Zagreb company Infinum has grown to 280 employees and associates across as many as a dozen countries. They mostly work for western markets and their clients are global companies from all over the world. Last year, at the Group level, they had a consolidated 82 million kuna in revenue, and this year they expect to have around 100 million kuna in revenue and around 300 employees. Their average annual growth over the last five years has stood at about 40 percent. Infinum's operations and all of their investments were financed exclusively from their own reinvested earnings.
The co-owners of the Infinum group, along with the two founders, are Nikola Kapraljevic and Josip Biscan, who will also make up the management team of the new company Porshe Digital Croatia. When it comes to other companies owned by Tomislav Car, there is also CircuitMess, which he started with Albert Gajsak.
Regarding the motives that drive him, Tomislav Car says that his main desire and challenge is to create something new, regardless of whether it is a product or starting a company. For now, says Car, they aren't thinking about selling Infinum even though they do have an offer.
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Croatia Imports 1.8 Billion Kuna More Medicine in 2020 Than 2019
November the 12th, 2020 - The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has sent shockwaves throughout the world, affecting imports and exports as well as the upkeep of medical supplies for various countries. In 2020, Croatia imports a significantly more costly amount of medicine when compared to last year.
As Marina Klepo/Novac writes, most export sectors have reduced their sales of goods since the beginning of this year owing to the dire situation, but some of them still managed to increase their product placement. In addition to mining and quarrying, which jumped sharply due to the relocation of oil refining to Hungary, the coronavirus crisis was also stimulating for the export of agricultural products.
According to the CBS, the export of agricultural products rose by 16.9 percent in the first eight months of 2020, from 3.24 to 3.79 billion kuna. When looking at things sector by sector, the export of food and live animals/livestock increased by 8.6 percent and reached 8.3 billion kuna. Exports within the food industry fell by almost 10 percent in 2020's first eight months, but several industries still managed to slightly exceed last year's results: the production of paper (5.9 percent), electrical equipment (2.5 percent), computers and electronic and optical products (2 percent), as well as food production (0.7 percent).
When it comes to imports, the only activity that has significantly increased activity is, quite naturally, pharmaceuticals, which isn't surprising when looking at the unprecedented situation dominated by the pandemic that we continue to find ourselves knee-deep in. This sector did well, and Croatia imports rose by as much as 25.9 percent, reaching a staggering 1.8 billion kuna. At the same time, exports from the Croatian pharmaceutical industry fell 7 percent.
Finally, total exports in 2020's maiden eight months amounted to 69.6 billion kuna, equal to 6.3 percent less than in the same period last year, and imports fell by 10.8 percent, down to 111.5 billion kuna. It is noticeable that trade in August decreased significantly when compared to the previous two months, and exports and imports returned to the unimpressive levels seen during the lockdown period back in April and May.
However, due to a larger drop in imports than exports, and the CBS data for the first nine months of 2020, the foreign trade deficit has significantly decreased by about 18 percent. Thus, the coverage of imports by exports has also improved; it reached 63.5 percent, from 59.9 percent in the same period last year.
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Flights to Croatia: easyJet Operates Between Glasgow and Pula Next Summer
November 12, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as easyJet operates between Glasgow and Pula next summer.
Croatian Aviation reports that British low-cost airline easyJet has announced it is introducing a new route to Pula Airport in the summer flight schedule next year.
easyJet announced that in the summer of 2021, it currently plans to launch a new line to Croatia. If the situation with the global pandemic calms by next summer, it is to be expected that this well-known British airline will be present in Croatian airports (Pula, Zadar, Split, and Dubrovnik) with far more weekly operations and routes than this summer.
Despite the current situation, easyJet has confirmed the introduction of a new line to Croatia - the Glasgow - Pula line will be introduced on June 28. Originally, this line was supposed to operate in the summer of 2020, but this did not happen for obvious reasons.
Thus, easyJet announces two flights a week from June 28 to September 3, 20201, every Monday and Friday.
A319 aircraft has been announced on the route, which has a capacity of 156 seats in the fleet of this low-cost carrier. easyJet has more than 130 A319 aircraft in its fleet. easyJet is planning 10 routes to Pula Airport in the summer of 2021.
With the announced Glasgow - Pula line, where they will have no competition, easyJet is already selling tickets on direct lines from London (Luton and Gatwick), Liverpool, Bristol, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Geneva and Basel for next summer season.
Lines from London (Luton) and Bristol should start operating to Pula at the end of April, specifically from April 27. Operational changes are possible, and operations will depend on the epidemiological situation and the demand itself. Croatian Aviation will continue to monitor easyJet's flight schedule to Croatia and report any changes in a timely manner, which TCN will then report to its readers.
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Domagoj Vida Played Coronavirus-Infected against Turkey, HNS Explains
November 11, 2020 - Croatia national team player Domagoj Vida played coronavirus-infected in the friendly match between Croatia and Turkey on Thursday evening, which ended 3:3.
On Thursday, we will find out what the further procedure is and whether this situation will affect the Nations League matches this Saturday against Sweden and Tuesday against Portugal.
We are transmitting the HNS press release in its entirety:
"Immediately after midnight local time in Istanbul, the Croatia national football team's medical service received the SARS-CoV-2 virus test results, among which was a positive result among the players.
After all the players and staff members were negative in the regular test for the match against Turkey on Monday, the regular test for the match against Sweden was done on Wednesday morning. HNS received the official test results after midnight local time, which showed that national team member Domagoj Vida is positive for coronavirus.
The Croatia national team's medical service received initial information at the end of halftime that there was one potentially positive result. This is a common test procedure, and a questionable result is retested to confirm the result.
At that time, coach Zlatko Dalic had already decided to substitute Vida. The national team's medical service isolated Vida according to all epidemiological measures until the confirmation of the test results.
Vida will spend the next few days in self-isolation in Istanbul following regulations.
All other national team members and staff members, who tested negative, will travel to Stockholm. It is taken into account that the national team complied with all epidemiological measures, following UEFA's Return to Play protocol.
In addition to Vida, one member of the HNS delegation was also positive, and was not in contact with national team members or staff members."
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Charges Brought against Organizer of Zagreb Anti-COVID Protest Rally
ZAGREB, Nov 11, 2020 - Police have brought charges against the 27-year-old organizer and leader of the Anti-COVID protest rally that called for the dissolution of the national COVID-19 crisis response team for failing to ensure law and order and violating epidemiological rules.
They said that the 27-year-old man had not taken measures to ensure law and order, which resulted in the violation of measures introduced by the crisis response team, namely those related to keeping a safe distance and using protective face masks when that is not possible. In addition, the man did not warn protesters or stop the rally when he saw that they were not adhering to the measures in place.
Police said that the 27-year-old man had been informed about his duties as the organizer and leader of a public gathering when he reported the protest rally, and he had been warned to adhere to all epidemiological measures.
They added that the City of Zagreb's crisis response team had sent the instructions to the organizer of the Anti-COVID protest rally.
Citizens dissatisfied with the work of the national coronavirus response team gathered at Zagreb's Central Railway Station on Sunday and walked towards the main square Trg Bana Jelacica where a dozen speakers addressed the demonstrators.
During their march, they did not adhere to epidemiological measures, such as keeping a safe distance or wearing protective masks.
Demonstrators carried banners with different messages, including those reading: "How dangerous is a virus if you need a test to know you have it?" and "This is not a matter of virus, but a matter of control."
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Euro Adoption to Have Positive Impact, Particularly on Tourism, Says Ministry
ZAGREB, Nov 11, 2020 - Euro adoption in Croatia will generate a significant and permanent benefit for the economy and the positive effects will be particularly reflected in tourism due to the size of that sector and its high share of tourist demand in EU member states, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports said on Wednesday.
"Visitors from countries where the euro is legal tender generate almost 70% of Croatia's total tourism revenue and about 60% of total bed nights come from the euro area. Introducing the euro will also help boost international cooperation, investment and promotional effects on the tourism sector," the ministry said in response to a query from Hina following a meeting of the National Council for Euro Adoption.
The ministry underscored that Croatia is strongly integrated with the euro area through trade, hence introducing the euro in Croatia will generate significant benefits for the economy.
"It is important to observe and estimate how introducing the euro will affect individual sectors in Croatia, primarily tourism which accounts for a significant share of Croatia's GDP and additionally generates a multiplying effect on other economic activities," the ministry said.
It underlined that "available empiric research mostly indicates positive implications for tourism in introducing the common currency."
Research indicates that introducing the euro has positively impacted foreign investments, hence it can be expected that introducing the euro will encourage investors in Croatia, primarily as there will no longer be any uncertainty related to exchange rates and because of greater transparency in doing business, the ministry concluded.
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Turkey v Croatia Worn Match Shirts Up for Online Auction
November 11, 2020 - Worn match shirts from the Turkey v Croatia friendly on Wednesday night will be auctioned online for humanitarian purposes.
After the Croatia national football team became the first in the world last year to donate their competitive match shirts (Croatia - Hungary) to an online auction for humanitarian purposes and collect more than 30 thousand euro, the Vatreni will follow the same example tonight after the friendly match against Turkey.
Therefore, all Croatia national team members playing tonight's match against Turkey will auction their shirts from the match. The proceeds will go to the Fire Heart Foundation (Vatreno Srce), founded and run by Croatia national team members and coaches. Through the foundation, they have helped Croatia's children and youth for years with donations to the Children's Clinic and the Step into Life campaign.
The shirts will be available for auction at https://matchwornshirt.com/club/croatia. You can submit your bids from the beginning of the match, and the auction will end ten days after the match. The starting price of all shirts is 89 euros, including the cost of delivery anywhere in the world.
Each shirts will have the Turkey - Croatia label and signed by the national team member who wore it.
Join the auction at https://matchwornshirt.com/club/croatia, support the work of the Fire Heart Foundation, and treat yourself or your loved ones to a memory of a lifetime!
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Turkey and Croatia Draw in Friendly Match (3:3)
November 11, 2020 - Turkey and Croatia met in Istanbul for a friendly match on Wednesday as preparation for their upcoming Nations League matches against Sweden and Portugal.
The Croatia national team met Turkey in a friendly match in Istanbul at 6:45 pm on Wednesday. The friendly was played at Besiktas stadium and served as preparation for coach Zlatko Dalic before the Nations League matches against Sweden and Portugal.
Croatia's starting 11 was anything but standard, featuring several young players - Sluga - Juranović, Vida, Pongračić, Melnjak - Rog, Badelj - Brekalo, Pašalić, Oršić - Budimir.
As announced, Dalic gave priority to players who did not have many opportunities in the national team jersey.
The match kicked off without spectators and was fairly even until the 22nd minute when carelessness in the Croatia defense resulted in a Turkey penalty. Tosun scored for 1:0.
Fortunately, just 10 minutes later, Budimir equalized the score, though Croatia wouldn't have been as lucky if VAR was involved. A missed Budimir handball and goal made the game 1:1 in the 32nd minute.
But not even 10 minutes after that, Croatia's defense fell apart... again. Juranovic was beat on the right side, and Turuc scored for the 2:1 lead at the half.
The second half began with one substitution - Uremovic came in for Vida.
It didn't take long for Croatia to equalize. Oršić found Brekalo on the right side, who sent a sharp ball into the box, which found Pašalić alone on the left to score for 2:2 in the 53rd.
Just two minutes later, Oršić found the head of Brekalo, who put Croatia in the lead for the first time of the match - 2:3!
Unfortunately, Croatia's lead didn't last long - Under equalized for Turkey in the 58th (3:3).
In the 60th minute, Toma Basic replaced Badelj and debuted for Croatia, while Caleta-Car replaced Pongracic, and Perisic replaced Brekalo.
In the 66th minute, Mirko Antonio Colak was subbed on for Budimir, also making his Croatia debut.
By the 68th minute, Turkey had 3 shots on goal to Croatia's 5.
Even Luka Modric got his chance against Turkey, replacing Mario Pasalic in the 76th minute.
With 10 minutes to go, Croatia didn't want to settle for a draw and was hunting for their fourth goal. The referee added three minutes, though neither side was able to score.
The friendly ended 3:3.
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