October the 5th, 2021 - 2020 was an extremely difficult year for the entire world, and Croatian companies were by no means immune to the dire and unprecedented crisis which dominated the economic picture and halted the world as we knew it. That said, some Croatian companies enjoyed high revenues and incomes. The following performed the best, according to Fina.

As Novac/Jutarnji writes, the analysis of the Financial Agency (Fina) on the top 50 Croatian companies in terms of total revenue by type of ownership, showed that enterprises operating in the private sector back in pandemic-dominated 2020 generated the highest total revenue, totalling a massive 123.1 billion kuna.

At the same time, the first 50 state-owned Croatian companies generated a very handsome 44.5 billion kuna in revenue, those with mixed ownership earned 42.4 billion kuna, and in terms of cooperatives, revenues stood at 1.1 billion kuna.

The top 50 Croatian companies in terms of private ownership generated total revenues of 123.1 billion kuna last year, employed 67,022 employees and generated a net profit of 3.8 billion kuna. The average calculated monthly net salary amounted to 7,219 kuna.

Of these 50 privately owned Croatian companies, most of them operate within the trade sector, as much as 54 percent, of them, in the manufacturing industry, 26 percent, and the largest revenues were generated by Konzum plus (10 billion kuna), Prvo plinarsko društvo (9.8 billion kuna) and Lidl Croatia (6.1 billion kuna).

Last year, the top 50 Croatian companies which are under state ownership generated total revenues of 44.5 billion kuna, employed 68,844 employees and generated a net profit of 2.1 billion kuna. The average monthly net salary of these entrepreneurs stood at 7,552 kuna.

Out of a total of 50 state-owned companies, most are in the field of transport and storage (22 percent), electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supplies (20 percent) and water supply; wastewater disposal, waste management and environmental remediation activities (12 percent).

The largest total revenue among state-owned companies were generated by HEP (9.4 billion kuna), HEP-Proizvodnja (4.3 billion kuna) and HEP-Distribution System Operator (3.6 billion kuna).

Fina's data on the top 50 Croatian companies under mixed ownership shows that they generated total revenues in the amount of 42.4 billion kuna, employed 35,906 workers and had a net loss of 216.1 million kuna. The average calculated monthly net salary of these entrepreneurs was 7,854 kuna.

Out of 50 companies under mixed ownership according to the criterion of total revenue, most of them operate within the processing industry (44 percent), transport and storage (12 percent) and the trade sector (10 percent).

Among these Croatian companies, INA (14.2 billion kuna), Hrvatski Telekom (Croatian Telecom) (5.9 billion kuna) and Pevex (formerly Pevec) (2.3 billion kuna) reported the highest total revenues.

For more on Croatian companies and doing business in Croatia, make sure to check out our business section.

October the 4th, 2021 - The Croatian startup scene is still blossoming despite the dire economic situation caused by the pandemic, and the Croatian startup Meddox has something to boast about, having attracting a massive 4000 users in just a couple of months.

As Novac/Jutarnji/Bernard Ivezic writes, the Croatian startup Meddox has attracted more than 4,000 users in a mere two months. The first mobile application (app) for storing medical records and one of the first Croatian healthcare startups quietly released its product on the Google Play Store at the end of the summer this year.

Off to a fantastic start, this startup is still growing, although something similar already exists in Croatia. The health portal, as part of the state IT system CEZIH, brings together medical documentation from examinations and tests performed in hospitals and other state healthcare institutions in one place.

Vesna Babic, the co-founder of the Croatian startup Meddox, says that they decided on a different approach and, instead of the healthcare system, they put the patients themselves at the centre of the story.

''Even in CEZIH, part of the documentation isn't available to all doctors that people visit, and documentation from private healthcare institutions can't be included in that system at all. The meaning of Meddox is that each of us has our medical documentation in one place and always with us, easily accessible on our mobile phones,'' says Babic.

She went on to explain that this important documentation is entered into the application in two ways. The first is by taking a photo, and the second is done by opening the document in the Meddox application, after which it processes it and makes it searchable.

''In this way, it becomes possible to store covid certificates, so many use our applications for that as well, and all the documentation is available at any time because it's stored in the cloud,'' Babic pointed out, adding that behind all this there is a broader meaning. According to a July McKinsey study, greater healthcare and more careful medication, or the more accurate monitoring of therapy, could reduce global health spending by up to 40 percent over a 20-year period. But this can only be done by people who are ''health literate''.

''With the Croatian startup Meddox, we want to enable people to take control of their health data and to improve their understanding of health information, and thus take better care of their own health,'' noted Babic.

As an example of that, Meddox's application offers a comparison of laboratory results of its users. As such, through easily understandable graphs, it shows an overview of the results in order to notice reduced or increased values ​​in time. Babic, who has worked in the world of pharmacies for almost two decades, says the application recognises more than 1,000 laboratory parametres. She emphasised that the idea for the app was initially conceived by business partner Maja Bogovic, who is the founder and director of the job search portal Danasradim.hr (TodayIWork) and a former manager with extensive experience in managing procurement at both Ipercoop and Konzum.

''Healthcare differs from country to country, but the needs of the patient are the same everywhere,'' Bogovic rightly noted.

Development took place during lockdown

She explained that she got the idea to develop the Croatian startup Meddox two years ago. After the Global Innovation Summit, at which the health and aging of the population was set as one of the most important segments of development in the next period, she began to think about which product everyone would need. It started to be realised last year when the lockdowns started due to the pandemic.

Vesna Babic explained that they developed the idea and then included experts, and even during in the summer, they had their first functional specification of the application and the framework design. Then they looked for investors.

''We presented the idea to family and friends and two of them invested in our startup. Then we founded companies and ordered the development of the application from the software company Blue Factory from Virovitica. In general, about a year passed from the idea to the placement of the application on the Google Play Store,'' concluded Babic.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

October the 4th, 2021 - Waldpass, which is based in Zagreb, has come up with what can be applied as a global solution to a very common road traffic issue - vehicles getting into accidents because of animals present on the roads.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, vehicle collisions with game and other wild animals are among the burning problems for all roads around the world, including right here in Croatia. On the roads, along with small animals, larger animals, such as roe deer, wild boar, foxes, and in rare cases even wolves and bears suffer on the roads. The victims are not only animals, but also drivers and other road users.

Various solutions have been being worked on across the world for years to stop or at least reduce such awful situations, and Croatia has thought up its own solution, unique in the world, which has already been approved by hunters - Waldpass, the first device to deter wild animals from the roads using an infrared spectrum.

“We want to make the population aware of this problem, to bring the Waldpass community together and promote the protection of animals and human lives on the roads. The cumulative effect is important, we want to encourage change. The larger the community we create, the safer the roads will be and the animals will stay where they should be, in the forest. We first developed and tested the product, and then founded the company,'' explained Ana Trepsic, the business manager of Zagreb's Waldpass.

A Croatian solution to a global problem

The number of people injured or even killed in these accidents is alarming. At the same time, damage to vehicles reaches tens of thousands of kuna. According to statistics, 30,000 people have been injured in the last 15 years and 300 deaths are caused each year across Europe when vehicles collide with animals on the road. Last year, 684 traffic accidents were officially recorded in Croatia due to vehicle collisions with animals. In these accidents, 39 people were injured, 10 of them seriously. In previous years, there were even more vehicle accidents caused by wildlife, and people were killed in some of them.

As Trepsic and Marko Borosak, the director of Waldpass, explained, this device is placed on the vehicle's registration plate, and the infrared light on it drives animals away from the oncoming car, which prevents the vehicle from crashing into the animal. Infrared light has a wavelength outside the human visible spectrum so it cannot be observed and as such is not dangerous to other people on the road. As the visible spectrum of deer is very different, these animals perceive infrared light as a threat and associate the light with a real danger in the movement of the vehicle, and therefore avoid it at all costs.

The transmitter of the Waldpass device is mounted on the license plate holder, and then fixed in a suitable place on the front or rear of the vehicle. There is also a double installation for better performance on both license plates. The integrated GPS speedometer ensures for the optimal switching on and operation of the device, and the waterproof and robust design can withstand all weather and road conditions.

They're presenting their device to the public for the first time today, on October the 4th, when the International Day for the Protection of Animals is also being celebrated. In addition, autumn is the optimal period for the installation of Waldpass' creation because animals such as deer are the most active due to the mating season, most often at dawn and dusk when their behaviour, especially that of stags and bucks, can be truly unpredictable.

Waldpass has, so to speak, arrived at the right time when there is more and more talk about the problem of wildlife on the roads, especially wild boar, animals which people are increasingly seeing in the lower mountains and even in their own backyards where they can become aggressive and dangerous to domestic animals and pets. During the coronavirus pandemic, their numbers increased even more.

Borosak explained that the story with Waldpass started by accident, during the research of the influence of air and lasers on the behaviour of animals.

“We studied the work of foreign experts, and we based our device more on visual detection, examining the frequencies and the exact effect of our technology on wildlife. Our device throws light left and right, and the designed angle is 30 degrees - as the vehicle moves, it emits light on both sides of the section. This protects the community.

When we saw significant results, we decided to move forward with it. More specifically, we've been engaged in this for the past 2.5 years, and we used the coronavirus pandemic to investigate and develop the entire project even more intensively, devising a proper strategy. This innovation has been submitted for patent protection, we're waiting for an opinion and we'll continue in the direction of adopting it as a patent. We'd be glad if this product had a global impact. We even have test devices ready. It will be necessary to monitor local game for a period of 3-6 months, set up some night cameras, cover the entire area, equip a fleet of vehicles, look at the seasonal impact… We're intensively looking for where we can place these test devices. We hope to start cooperation with the Faculty of Agriculture, within which there is a department for hunting, and we also plan to turn to hunting societies, HGSS and similar organisations,'' explained Waldpass' Borosak.

Fifteen patents in fifteen years...

Waldpass is otherwise a company whose founder and director is Marko Borosak, who is also an innovator and the founder of A-Elektronik. Borosak has been dealing with automotive electronics for fifteen years, in which he has as many as fifteen patents in the field of laser and radar technology.

For more, make sure to check out Made in Croatia.

October the 3rd, 2021 - Konzum has officially taken over the Istrian Miracolo shopping chain, which the well known Croatian shopping giant has expressed its satisfaction with.

Just four years ago, Konzum was associated with the failing Agrokor, which had fallen into disarray under the leadership of its former boss, Ivica Todoric. What then seemed like rocky times and high seas for the shopping brand which can be found all over Croatia, now seems to firmly be in the past.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, this business move and take over by Konzum has completed 2021's expantion of the retail network across Istria and Kvarner, and as many as 101 stores will be located within that general area.

"It's a great feeling to be in this role again. The takeover of the Istrian Miracolo is just part of a series of good news from Konzum this year in which we're recording very good results, we've had a great season and we are a key player in the integration processes within retail in the Fortenova Group (former Agrokor).

The new thirteen stores and 55 people in Kozum's large family are our new strength in Istria and Kvarner, where we now have over 100 stores. Such a position strengthens Konzum, but more importantly, it ensures quality and secure supply, especially during the tourist season,'' said Zoran Mitreski, President of the Management Board of Konzum when speaking about the company's take over of the Istrian Miracolo chain.

For more information on Croatian companies, investments and more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

October the 1st, 2021 - Zagreb Holding is often splashed across the news for all the wrong reasons, but it managed to do well during the first half of 2021, reducing its losses quite significantly when compared to the same period back in pandemic-dominated 2020.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tomislav Pili writes, Zagreb Holding reduced its losses in the first half of the year according to the consolidated report for the group, and the biggest ''weight'' in terms of finances for the business came from its Cistoca subsidiary.

The announcement on the Zagreb Stock Exchange states that the group recorded 1.96 billion kuna in operating income in the first six months of this year, which is 7.4 percent more on an annual basis, and total revenues amounted to an impressive 2.02 billion kuna.

The biggest impetus for the growth of Zagreb Holding's income came from the business of gas supply and distribution by expanding to new distribution areas. Namely, Gradska plinara, which is part of Zagreb Holding, has been supplying eleven new distribution areas in as many as nine different Croatian counties since back in April.

It thus gained 45,000 new customers. This resulted in an increase in the Group's revenue by HRK 24.7 million, or 16 percent on an annual basis.

However, in addition to revenues, expenses also grew, by three percent to 2.08 billion kuna, so the group ended the first half of the year with a loss of 60.8 million kuna, and while that seems steep, it's an improvement when compared to the same period last year, when losses amounted to almost 140 million kuna.

“The overall results of the Zagreb Holding Group's operations continue to be greatly influenced by the operations of the Cistoca subsidiary. In this business segment, a loss of 85.7 million kuna was recorded,'' the aforementioned report states.

For more information on Croatian companies and their performances, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

September the 30th, 2021 - The Croatian company Koncar is busy strengthening its position on the Swedish market after having signed its first contract with a Swedish system operator, worth a massive 63 million kuna in total.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, the month, the Croatian company Koncar (Koncar Energy and Transport Engineering (KET) signed its first contract with the Swedish distribution system operator Vattenfall Eldistribution. This 63 million kuna strong contract includes a very complex reconstruction of the 130 kV plant at the transformer station (TS) 220/130/70/20 kV Finnslatten in Västerås, which is located not far from the Swedish capital of Stockholm, and was signed by Ivan Tomsic of the Croatian company Koncar.

The contract is the result of three years of systematic performance and sales activities on the Swedish market, and Koncar states that it was obtained in strong competition from local reputable companies.

“Based on its own extremely high standards, the customer has carried out a pre-qualification procedure for a project that is of strategic importance for supplying the industrial zone and priority customers. Special emphasis was placed on safety at work, compliance of business processes with quality monitoring and environmental protection systems and detailed safety checks of all members of the project team,'' they say from the company.

The reconstruction project of TS 220/130/70/20 kV Finnslatten, which is expected to be completed in the middle of 2023, is a complex project involving the replacement of the external, air-insulated 70 kV plant with a new 130 kV plant. The reconstruction process includes the preparation of all of the project documentation, the delivery and replacement of high-voltage primary equipment, secondary equipment, auxiliary systems, the construction of a new control building, as well as the necessary construction work, functional tests, and the commissioning and maintenance during the warranty period.

In addition to all of the above, which is extensive enough on its own, the subject of the contract also involves the procurement and laying of 145 kV cables and other equipment for the purpose of connecting priority customers on the route of 4 kilometers.

According to what is currently known about the deal, the Croatian company Koncar will, in addition to the local subcontractor for construction works, rely on its own experts for project management and design, and will also open a branch office that will serve the local implementation of this and all future projects in Sweden.

“The development of activities over on the Swedish market is supported by the recently received decision on the selection of the Croatian company Koncar as the best bidder for the project of reconstruction of secondary protection, control and SCADA systems for the Swedish transmission system operator Svenska Kraftnat. This project represents a very complex project involving the reconstruction of secondary systems of 400 and 220 kV transformer stations, which confirms the quality, professionalism and expertise of Koncar from sales to the implementation of complex projects on the wider EU market,'' the company concluded.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

September the 29th, 2021 - The Croatian Agrivi company has had its agriculture innovation recognised, praised, and chosen as the very best by no less than the United Nations (UN).

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, with software such as that created by the Croatian Agrivi company, farmers can work to successfully reduce risks and increase their overall yields while simultaneously increasing their product quality and creating additional savings.

Back in July this year, the Croatian Agrivi agritech (agricultural technology) company was among the 27 impressive finalists of the Digital Excellence in Agriculture in Europe and Central Asia competition organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (UN) from which it returned home as the winner in the Agricultural Innovation Systems and Sustainable Agriculture - Related Systems farm management category.

"I'm proud that Agrivi has once again been recognised as an innovative technological solution that contributes to the long-term sustainability of agricultural production, not only in Croatia, but on global scale. This award is yet another confirmation of the efficiency and quality of Agrivi's software, which brings numerous benefits to farmers and consumers in the long run.

With software such as that created by Agrivi, farmers reduce risks and increase their yields while increasing their product quality and creating savings. On the other hand, the implementation of this software in production ensures the constant control of the production process, which enables traceability, so that consumers have a completely transparent insight into the production process of the food they're consuming. This is no longer our future, but the present,'' said the founder and director of the Croatian Agrivi company, Matija Zulj, adding that he hopes that in the coming period, an increasing number of producers will begin to digitise their production.

For more on Croatian inventions, companies and innovation, make sure to check out Made in Croatia.

September the 28th, 2021 - The Croatian Modepack company has a lot to thank e-commerce for, which rose in popularity in Croatia during the coronavirus pandemic. Investments are on the cards as business excels for this Zagreb-based enterprise.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the likes of Amazon, H&M, Vans, Adidas, DHL, DPD, Loomis, and numerous European financial institutions as well as the diamond exchange in Antwerp (Antwerpen World Diamond Centre) are just some of the many users of courier and security packaging of the Croatian Modepack company.

Although it has only been on the market for five years, Modepack is already one of the global leaders in the production of high-quality packaging for the logistics transport of goods, with an emphasis placed on e-commerce, courier deliveries and security packaging for money and valuables. They export to 32 world markets, with a total share of exports in business of over 90 percent. As Jure Siric, the director and owner of the company, explains, the Croatian Modepack company was based on the previous assessment that e-commerce would soon become a reality, and this happened long before he himself had hoped.

“I'm not a complete foreigner in this industry because I come from the family company Weltplast, which has been dealing with packaging and recycling since back in 1983, and since 2010 I've been leading sales for EU markets in it. But... that's a big company that deals with packaging and raw materials in general, and my desire was to step into something new and different. Apparently, I wasn't wrong in making that move,'' said Siric.

He added that the global coronavirus pandemic, although it halted the entire society and economy over the past year, has led to enormous growth in the e-commerce segment that has surprised them as well. Due to the exponential growth of the business, the Croatian Modepack company decided to embark on a new investment and to go for double capacities in 2020. In one month, construction work should begin on their new plant in Velika Gorica which will total at a massive 50 million kuna. The plant will be in the immediate vicinity of their important customer, Croatian Post (Hrvatska posta) which has its own logistics and distribution centre located there.

The project, which should be completed by the summer of 2022, was also helped by the EU with handsome funds in the amount of 7.5 million kuna.

"We're currently working on five production lines, which is actually insufficient for us. In addition to moving the existing ones, we're going to install three new production lines in the new plant, which will have the same capacity as these five put together, but will have much greater technological possibilities, especially in terms of paper packaging, which is increasingly in demand due to trends,'' said Siric. Of the total investment, more than two thirds of it will be invested into equipping the plant's production, while the rest will go to construction works.

The new plant will employ about 20 new workers, which will mean an employment growth of about 50 percent, given that they currently have 42 employees. The director of this company explained that the new plant will have a capacity of 12 to 14 production lines, if market conditions require it, and about 80 employees.

"As ecology and the green agenda are generally a very important topic in our business, we've even decided to apply this model when planning investments. To be more specific, we decided not to go into a greenfield investment, but to recycle an existing facility. We soon found what we were looking for in the unfinished project of the failed construction company Tempo, which started building its sales headquarters in Velika Gorica back in the mid-1990s, but due to business difficulties ,the project was halted and the company ended up going bankrupt,'' explained Siric.

As it is a large area, a building of 5500 m2 and land covering 32,000 square metres in total, further expansion is possible. Flying on the wings of e-commerce and volume growth, the Croatian Modepack company has been recording constant growth in terms of revenue that amounted to 50 million kuna last year, which represented growth of 60 percent when compared to the year before when they grew by 30 percent, while this year they expect additional growth of 20 percent and revenue of about 60 million kuna. With this new plant and the expansion of their range, they expect that in 2025, their revenue should reach the 150 million kuna mark, if not more.

“Global e-commerce is growing unstoppably, and even before the coronavirus pandemic, during 2019, global growth stood at 21 percent. Data for last year shows that countries with more developed e-commerce achieved significant, but still lower growth, while countries like Croatia measured growth in literal hundreds of percentage points. The statistics at our disposal show that e-commerce at the EU level increased by 31 percent last year, and if we look at some of the most important member states, then we can see that in Germany it is 22 percent, in the United Kingdom 31 percent, and in Spain 75 percent. Estimates for Croatia are over 200 percent,'' stated Jure Siric.

The Croatian Modepack company otherwise truly represents the pinnacle of technology in its sector and exports as much as 92 percent of its production.

For more, follow our business section.

September the 24th, 2021 - Three more Croatian companies have managed to obtain halal certificates which will open up more doors for them on the markets of Islamic countries, and as such increase their revenue.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, to date, 160 such halal certificates have been issued, and 84 Croatian companies who currently have a halal certificate, of which 52 are food producers, 32 are engaged in services. One educational institution, the Matija Gubac Elementary School, as well as the first manufacturer of halal disinfectants, Genox, have halal certificates.

After the introduction of the halal certificate, the export of products is growing as having the certificate has an impact on the increase of company income, as well as on the profit, as was highlighted by the research conducted among Croatian companies and producers which are holders of halal certificates before the pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic has further increased demand for halal products and services worldwide, opening up numerous markets and business opportunities. Why and how the halal market is developing, what the challenges and perspectives are, what the role of halal in certification and standardisation is, how much and how it contributes to exports and tourism in Croatia and what foreign halal experiences are, were all topics discussed at the first Halal Business Forum, which was held on Tuesday, September the 21st, 2021, at the Westin Hotel in Zagreb.

As part of the Forum, three more Croatian companies were presented with their halal certificates, these include: Tammy craft, which provides services in the processing of hazelnuts as a raw material and for the production of hazelnut oil, flour and butter; Luxury Villa Subventus from the island of Krk and Uljari Vodice d.o.o., which owns a modern olive oil centre.

Mufti Academician Aziz Hasanovic of the Islamic Community in the Republic of Croatia, stated that the Islamic community founded the Centre in 2010, from the very beginning with the desire to increase the number of not only companies but also products and services with halal certificates. There is room for more cooperation, the expansion of production opportunities, as well as joint appearances in third markets, he believes.

For Sandra Herman, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport, there's no doubt. Halal tourism will have its place in the Tourism Development Strategy until 2027, which is currently being prepared, not only seasonally, but also for the off-season and in the development of health and wellness tourism. She reminded that a total of 12 hotels have halal certificates, as well as one Croatian travel agency.

The ambassadorial panel, attended by Malaysian ambassadors Kennedy Mayong Onon, Iran's Parviz Esmaeili, Azerbaijan's Fakhraddin Gurbanov and the first secretary of the Indonesian Embassy in Croatia, Wasan Adi Nugraha, said that there was room and interest in developing foreign trade. The creation and operation of joint chambers and business associations, as well as the exchange of information, constant communication and the presentation and identification of potential, could contribute to acceleration. They also invited Croatian companies to freely contact them with inquiries about possible cooperation should they want to.

The value of the halal market in EU countries is estimated to stand at around 66 billion US dollars, with growth of between 2 and 3 percentage points each year. The EU produces a very large number of halal products for the needs of the domestic population, but at the same time, a lot of it is exported.

For more on Croatian companies, check our our business section.

September the 20th, 2021 - The popular Pekara Dubravica bakery chain, which came from very humble beginnings, has done excellently despite the coronavirus pandemic and the dire economic consequences it has had on the domestic and global economy.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, over the past several months, we've witnessed a great growth of the bakery/baked goods market across the Republic of Croatia, which has generally been accompanied by a large number of newly opened bakeries from both small businesses and larger bakery chains.

One of the serious players on the market, at least in the area of ​​the City of Zagreb and its surroundings, is Pekara Dubravica, which has a chain of 35 bakeries in Zagreb, Zapresic and Zabok and employs as many as 429 people.

Over more recent days, this family company, headed by Damir, Franjo and Krunoslav Mikelec, has been celebrating its 60th anniversary. From a small business much like any other, the Pekara Dubravica bakery company has become a very well known Croatia brand that annually earns a massive 156 million kuna, which is much as they had in the record 2019, while last year, due to the pandemic, their income dropped significantly.

They state from Pekara Dubravica that large stores have definitely become significant competition due to the very low prices of their baked products that they struggle to compete with.

"Most of these products are frozen and are imported. When we talk about the bread we bake every day and use large amounts of sourdough for it, the quality of our bread is incomparably higher. We don't import any of our baked products that we place in our bakeries, all our products are from our own production. Twenty years ago, we opened our first branches on the market, and at that time there were no retail chains like we have today, nor were there shopping centres like the ones we have today. Markets the place to get together and to shop. Today, that trend has changed drastically and it's very important for retail chains to attract everyday customers, and they do so in part through the very low prices of bread and other baked products,'' they explained from Pekara Dubravica.

Although in the past, some players from this demanding market have embarked on a large export or franchise expansion, Pekara Dubravica says that they are focused on their own branches, they don't have that in mind, and wholesale makes them a very small share of their overall revenue.

“Logistics and operations are very different whether we do retail or wholesale. We've arranged our business in such a way that we don't have large storage capacities and we don't have any plans to export, nor to open franchises or our own branches abroad.

Our production is specific, we have a lot of manual work which takes place in production, as well as finishing in the offices where a large part of our products are baked. Basically only bread and some small pastries are actually baked in production.

We'll continue to keep going in the same direction and we've got no plans to expand to foreign markets,'' they pointed out from this well known Zagreb company. As their main customers are people going to work, school or tourists, the pandemic has dealt them a considerable blow and they admit that 2020 was especially difficult for them.

"In that year, we had a drop in turnover of 21.1 percent and a drop in the number of customers of 28.5 percent. Our number of customers decreased because people worked en masse from home or didn't go to work at all, the schools were closed, there were no tourists and all of this affected our business. At the same time, the earthquake led to a large number of people from the city centre leaving, and this also affected our business. We managed to save jobs, and that was the most important thing for us at that moment,'' they stated from Pekara Dubravica.

They announced that their plan in the upcoming period is to maintain their good level of recognition and insist on product quality, innovation and freshness. For now, they explained, they're going to remain in the wider Zagreb area and are working on opening new bakeries with planned dynamics of 1-2 new ones per year.

For more, follow our business section.