March the 21st, 2021 - The Croatian company Bobis is a very well known name in Dalmatia, serving some of the nicest confectionary that goes down very well with a three hour coffee in the sun. This baked goods production company has taken important steps forward regardless of the pandemic.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Bobis, a Dalmatian leader in bakery and confectionery production and one of the most important Croatian companies in this popular field, has opened and put into operation a brand new, extremely modern factory in Solin near Split.
This is one of the most significant events in the history of the company founded back in 1949, whose name is one of the most recognisable Split and wider Dalmatian brands with a long and highly respected tradition.
The value of this significant investment stands at over 150 million kuna, the funds were invested in the construction and equipping of a new factory as well as the adaptation of the old administrative building.
The new production facilities are spread over two floors with a total usable area covering 13,200 square metres. The basic goal in the realisation of this important investment for the Croatian company Bobis is the modernisation and automation of production processes while maintaining traditional production methods that guarantee the quality of the final products, applying the latest technical, technological and hygienic standards and occupational safety standards, which makes Bobis' brand new factory one of the most modern in the entire region.
The key strategic determinant of the Croatian company Bobis is the application of traditional production methods and recipes as a guarantee of high quality of final products, where Bobis is profiled as a "craft" bakery whose focus is placed primarily on the production of healthy products without additives using natural yeasts.
The production capacity of the new factory is over 60 million products per year, and in the foreseeable future the plan is to further expand the capacity by an additional 40-50 million products per year. The total product range consists of 400 bakery and confectionery items, with the possibility of expanding the range through new products and innovations, for which the Croatian company Bobis has been extremely well known since its very inception.
Today, Bobis is a company with 67 of its own sales outlets, and its products are also available in the sales network of Tommy, the leading retail chain on the Adriatic coast.
The company employs 600 workers who make a key contribution to the business results, and in whose development they continue to invest.
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March the 21st, 2021 - One Zagreb software company has developed an innovative solution for the reporting of traffic and crowding on motorways.
As Novac/Bernard Ivezic writes, after Greece, Italy, Romania, the Netherlands and Lithuania, Croatia, like all other EU member states, will have to introduce the EU-Alert system in the next year. So far, sirens have been informing drivers on the country's motorways about sudden dangers and issues, and now they will send out SMS/text messages.
The Zagreb software company BISS, which also develops solutions for predicting motorway congestion and advanced mobile identification, has already developed its own IT solution for EU-Alert.
Aleksander Radovan, the development director of the aforementioned Zagreb software company, says that by developing technology that could be used in the fight against the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, they came up with a solution they call "SMS alerts".
''This is a service by which people in a certain area, if there are problems, are sent out a targeted SMS/text message notification that something is going on, and this will soon become an obligation at the European Union level,'' explained Radovan.
He added that those who haven't heard the sirens for whatever reason will also receive the SMS notification. Such a notification, we learn, doesn't necessarily have to arrive via SMS, but other widespread communication systems can be used to send it, such as sending a message via messaging/calling apps like WhatsApp and Viber. Radovan stated that thanks to their own development of new products, they have further accelerated revenue growth. He estimated that last year, this Zagreb software company increased its revenue by 40 percent compared to what they earned back in pre-pandemic 2019, and in 2021, he expects the same dynamics of revenue growth.
''We work mainly for foreign clients and we have software products that make delivery and crisis management more efficient, and that's what is currently most in demand,'' explained Radovan.
As a result, this Zagreb sofrware company increased its staff from 15 to 40 last year despite economic woes and entered the artificial intelligence (AI) segment. The new project they're working on is the development of advanced mobile device identification, which would confirm a user's identity on their mobile phone and then allow them to use it as the ultimate identification device. BISS is developing this technology together with Hrvatski Telekom (Croatian Telecom) and Sedam IT.
This Zagreb software company is already testing another, its own, new product on Croatia's motorways. It is software that predicts downtime and accidents. It does this by collecting data on the road conditions, weather forecasts, information from road management companies and monitoring the movement of mobile phones and vehicles connected to the internet. Based on this, it can reduce crowds in the peak tourist season when things become very busy.
''Currently, the majority of our income comes from a solution for the anonymisation of data in accordance with GDPR and a system that provides accurate addresses on shipments,'' concluded Radovan.
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March the 17th, 2021 - The Zagreb Dok-Ing company has expanded its production to as far away as China, and as such is expecting growth of above ten percent despite the ongoing economic woes plaguing the world.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, along with here at home in Europe and in the Middle East, the increasingly pronounced market for the strategic expansion of the Zagreb Dok-Ing company´s business is the vast continent of Asia. They have recently been present in South Korea, and it seems that they will soon enter the demanding Chinese market.
If the plans to expand into the Chinese market do end up materialising for this Croatian company, as an enormous challenge due to high demand, where the 'law' of large numbers reigns and where the economy is very much protected from the arrival of foreign investors, the upcoming period for this company owned by Vjekoslav Majetic will bring business growth with estimates of at least ten percent.
A preliminary agreement regarding the launch of demining robot production there for the Chinese Government and the Chinese Army can be said to have been reached, so the determinants of potential activities in China through the establishment of a joint venture with a Chinese partner are now known.
However, in order to establish cooperation and joint venture investment, a little more time is needed. A concrete outcome in the form of a contract can be expected most likely by the summer. As things stand after six months of negotiations, the current phase still seems to presuppose the conclusion of all of the the final details.
the Zagreb Dok-Ing company owner, noting that the time is not yet ready for any deeper comments, stated that the head of business development and sales of Dok-ing, Gordan Pesic, travelled to China this week.
Unlike Dok-ing's export placement, which is a world leader in demining robot production with a very impressive share of over 50 percent, the model concerning China assumes a joint investment in a factory with a Chinese state-owned company in the production of cranes and industrial machinery.
This requires the legal definition of positions in the field of intellectual property rights. The total investment stands at approximately 100 million kuna in shares, with investments in the form of business premises of a Chinese partner and the rights of a Croatian company in the field of intellectual property and consulting services.
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March the 16th, 2021 - Cognism, a British-Croatian startup has had a very handsome cash injection thanks to the VC fund of Switzerland´s largest telecom.
As Novac/Bernard Ivezic writes, the British-Croatian startup Cognism has received a 12.5 million US dollars in the form of an investment from the VC fund of Switzerland's largest telecom, Swisscom Ventures. This British-Croatian startup expects that the market in the USA will open up again in the next three months, and a similar thing could happen in the UK, but also in other markets across Europe. The last, hitherto known market value of Cognism was 503 million kuna or 72 million dollars. It is to be expected that that sum is bigger now, but the company has not yet commented on just how much bigger it is.
Cognism was launched back in 2015 by Zadar programmer Stjepan Buljat and former UBS financier James Isilay. In the meantime, this British-Croatian startup has become one of the fastest growing companies in the investment portfolio of South Central Ventures, the first Croatian VC fund.
Stjepan Buljat stated that they want to be ready for business expansion as soon as the lockdown is over.
"The US and the UK have already signalled that their lockdowns could be completed within the next three months and this offers a signal to everyone in business that they need to prepare for it, and we´d like to be ready, also at the at EU level,¨ explained Buljat.
Cognism has offices in Croatia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Macedonia and Germany. According to Latka, this startup is one of the 50 fastest growing software service providers in the whole world. Last year, according to Latka, Cognism achieved revenue growth of 130 percent and employs 189 professionals. The company has an open office in Zadar, and recently they created one here in Zagreb. Back in pre-pandemic 2019, it enjoyed 700,400 kuna in revenue in Croatia and employed eight IT professionals. Buljat says they now employ more than 20 people here in Croatia.
This British-Croatian startup has developed a cloud system that allows companies to use Internet technologies to improve their sales and marketing. This proved to be a hit in the pandemic, especially since many people worked from home and making business contacts was even harder than usual. Cognism states that they have more than a thousand customers in 30 countries.
Until the investment of Swisscom Ventures, this British-Croatian startup had attracted 28.9 million US dollars in investments, of which almost half were acheived last year, when they made their first acquisition in buying the German startup Mailtastic. With the purchase of Mailtastic, Cognism thus gained a marketing platform with email signatures and increased their number of employees to more than 200.
James Isilay, the CEO of Cognism, says Swisscom Ventures has indicated with this investment that they have grown into one of Europe’s largest data providers.
"This year we´re focused on growing our presence in the UK and across the rest of Europe, and our plan is to improve our products with additional functionalities and solutions we can offer globally. In addition, we will focus even more strongly to keep our data the most compliant at all levels,” stated Isilay.
Stefan Kuentz, a partner at Swisscom Ventures, pointed out that they want a leading player in this segment in Europe.
"Artificial intelligence is key to increasing salespeople productivity, even more so when people are working from home. Cognism is in a great position to become a leading company in Europe and we´re excited to be a part of that journey," Kuentz concluded.
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March the 9th, 2021 - Croatian coronavirus state aid, introduced as part of an economic/job preservation package by the government, has helped many keep their heads about water during these unprecedent times. Many enterprises have now returned that money.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, Solin-based automotive component maker Ad Plastik is the first Croatian enterprise to publicly announce this year that it is returning its Croatian coronavirus state aid which was received last year, at a time when it was forced to suspend production due to the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.
In an interview with Jutarnji list, the President of the Management Board, Marinko Dosen, announced that he intends to return the 12.3 million kuna in Croatian coronavirus state aid that was used to secure the payment of employee salaries last year, with an explanation that last year ended with a slightly better result than initially expected.
However, it should be noted that in a week´s time, Ad Plastik is holding a general meeting of its shareholders at which one of the points will be the payment of dividends, in which the reason for the return of Croatian coronavirus state aid should also be sought.
Namely, one of the conditions for using the aforementioned economic measure is the obligation that the company will not pay out from its operating profit.
This condition was mentioned a few months after the virus first arrived in Croatia and was a reason as to why many companies quickly changed their minds and decided to return Croatian coronavirus state aid back to the government. Although, as it now seems, the main trigger for the return of the aid was nevertheless the fact that the list of all aid recipients would be made public.
According to the data we received from the Croatian Employment Service (CES), so far, 20,850 Croatian enterprises/employers have returned their Croatian coronavirus state aid, and the total amount that sat on that account after its return now stands at almost 206 million kuna. Since the beginning of the implementation of this measure, a total of 9.395 billion kuna has been paid out to companies to help them preserve jobs, of which 432 million kuna was for contributions to those in the second pension pillar.
Croatian coronavirus state aid was paid out to over 111 thousand employers and almost 684 thousand of their employees. The most common reasons for the refund of these benefits, as they have stated from the CES, was the withdrawal of support from their employer, and improperly paid support for sick workers at the expense of the HZZO in the month for which support was received, failure to meet income criteria or other criteria, the non-payment of wages to workers, wrong payments due to multiple requests and so on.
"Consequently, we would not list the payment of profits as the predominant reason for the decision to return the support by the employer," they pointed out from the CES.
The institution in charge of implementing Croatian coronavirus state aid for job preservation also says that they note that "voluntary returns mainly took place in the period from June to August 2020, while significant voluntary returns have not been noticed recently."
Among the first to return the aid in Croatia, but also on a wider, international level, was the popular Swedish furniture chain Ikea.
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March the 9th, 2021 - The Croatian Sobocan company has received yet another international award for its innovative product, Movo, which has proven popular throughout the pandemic in which working from home has become the norm for very many.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, Movo, the innovative mobile office designed and made by the Croatian Sobocan company, has been awarded another prestigious international award, the BigSEE Wood Award 2021. They received the award for the best design in the category of wooden furniture, and they were also nominated for the Grand Prix.
With that, this product made by the Croatian Sobocan company has won as many as three prestigious international awards in less than one year. The idea for this product was initially "born" in the spring of 2020, and it was developed by the company´s design team, more precisely Anamaria Burazin as a product designer, as well as architects Mirna Jovic and Jakov Fatovic. It took only four months for the company to move from the original idea to the realisation and the finished product, and in December this first big international award arrived.
Modern office solutions that save space are increasingly in demand today as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, which forces the level of visibility of the Croatian Sobocan company´s product to be even higher.
The company has started with promotional activities on targeted markets and believe that interest and demand for Movo will only continue to grow in the near future. "We have the greatest interest in the German market, which was expected considering that we defined it as our primary target market and we first started with promotions there," they explained from the company.
It is worth noting that this family business is run by Franjo Sobocan and his sons Nikola and Dejan, and behind them, they say, are more than 8000 realised projects, 200 are of an architectural-design nature, six are production halls, there are 1.5 million square metres of equipped business premises and realised projects in more than 20 countries worldwide.
In short, this is a Croatian company that in its twenty years of business has grown into a serious "player" on the competitive European market when it comes to designing and manufacturing equipment for sales and business premises, and has about 200 employees.
˝We generate more than 50 percent of our annual revenues in export markets as an authorised partner of world-renowned brands. At the same time, the most important export markets are those of the German-speaking area; Austria, Germany and Switzerland and other countries of the Western European market. This year, we have expanded our list of business partners with a large number of clients, including Harvey Norman, Crocs Europa, Drogerie Markt, Sana Labor Slovenia, Wespa Spaces, Lukoil and many others. We have also continued our long-term cooperation with Valamar, Maistra, Mol Group, Intersport and TAF,¨ they stated from the Croatian Sobocan company.
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March the 5th, 2021 - If you read the Croatian headlines, you´ll notice the trend of doom, gloom and everything is terrible. It isn´t quite so. There are many entrepreneurial stories up and down the country gaining both traction and deserved success, and the Zagreb agency Five is just one of them.
As Telegram/Ivan Luzar writes, the Zagreb agency Five, by this point already very well known as one of the most successful startups from Croatia, has been sold for an enormous amount and is becoming part of the international Endava software group. The amount of the transaction stands at a whopping 40 million US dollars, equivalent to about 250 million kuna, which puts the Zagreb agency Five on the list of the largest digital acquisitions on the Croatian market.
The Zagreb agency Five was founded back in 2005 by Viktor Marohnic, and five years later it was joined by current partner and co-owner Luka Abrus. They have 220 employees in Zagreb, New York, Osijek, Rijeka and Split, with a focus on programming and marketing services for American clients.
"For us, this is a new and exciting chapter," Five told Telegram. “As part of Endava, a company thirty times bigger than Five, we´re going to be able to undertake much bigger projects, for much bigger clients, than we could do on our own. This is as if we have accelerated five years of development and achieved it immediately,"
Negotiations lasted for months
Negotiations on this matter have been going on for months now, more precisely since November last year. Five’s customer, Endava, is a technology company specialising in business solutions, with 7,500 employees in 33 offices worldwide. They are headquartered in the British capital of London and are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The current market value of Endava shares stands at 5.4 billion US dollars.
In an official acquisition announcement, representatives of the group point out that the Zagreb agency Five was interesting to them because of its extensive American operations and its work with clients such as Rosetta Stone, Mariott, Starz, Napster, Penguin Random House, McAfee and other well known names.
“They´re a brilliant team and they will bring additional skills to Endava, especially when it comes to production strategies and growth optimisation,” said John Cotterell, the CEO of Endava. "Additionally, their reputation as a leading New York-based agency in Croatia is complementary to our strategy and further strengthens our presence in the Adriatic region."
Marohnic, Abrus and Marusic all plan to stay with the Zagreb agency Five until further notice
In an interview with Telegram, managers Marohnic, Abrus and Sven Marusic all say that their decision was not easy, but they believe that they did the best for the company and all of its dedicated employees. At the operational and management level, they plan to stay with Five until further notice and work on projects as if nothing has changed.
"Last year I thought I would spend my whole life in this company," says Marohnic. “I founded Five with a simple idea: to create jobs for young and busy developers like I was. At the time, we were reading about the successes of startups in the Silicon Valley in the US and we wanted to get a chance to show how we can be just as good as them. At first, I was just happy to be able to pay my bills.”
It was time for a new and daring business jump...
The Zagreb agency Five, meanwhile, was developing extremely rapidly - about 500 people have passed through the agency in just fifteen years, he says - and it was time for a new venture. In recent years, Marohnic, Abrus and Marusic had been thinking about possible steps forward for Five. They considered, they say, buying smaller companies, as well as seeking out strategic investments that would significantly accelerate business growth.
The third option was to sell the Zagreb agency Five to a much larger group, within which they could take up even more advanced and interesting jobs. After meeting people from Endava, they concluded that they have very similar business and cultural values, and decided to talk to them. “After a lot of thinking, I decided this was the best decision. I guess it’s like with kids, as they grow up, it’s time for them to spread their wings and leave home. It is emotionally difficult, but you know rationally that it´s the right thing,¨ said Marohnic.
Opportunity for growth in all segments
"We´re looking forward to having a joint market presence, new opportunities that will open up to us as a result of this cooperation and opportunities for growth across all business segments," noted Marusic. ¨With this transaction, our people will get the opportunity to work on even bigger projects, with global clients. We believe that this strategic turn in business enables us to make a quantum leap into the future of digital agency business.¨
Over recent years, acquisitions and investments in Croatian startups have taken place more and more. Back in December last year, it was announced that the well known Croatian gaming company Nanobit had been sold for 148 million euros, and large investments were being handled by companies such as Rimac Automobili and Photomath by Damir Sabol.
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March the 5th, 2021 - The Croatian Submarine company has been spotted by the Financial Times and its impressive reach of sixteen million people around the world.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Financial Times (FT) a leading and highly respected publication which deals with all things related to politics and finance and has been around for more than 130 years now, has turned the spotlight on no less than the Croatian Submarine.
"In the autumn of 2020, we were contacted by the London office of the Financial Times. They requested documentation related to our business, for the purpose of possible inclusion in the prestigious list of the fastest growing European companies. From the very beginning, the Croatian Submarine company´s approach has been complementary in some segments to the business of technology companies. We´re really flattered by the fact that we, as a company from the non-technology industry, have ended up side by side with tech companies. This is a recognition for the entire company and the entire Submarine team. The imperative has always been the satisfaction of our employees because without it there can be no successful company,¨ said Aleksandar Lazinica, founder and co-owner of the Croatian Submarine company.
A place on the Financial Times list cannot be purchased for any money, and the entire business has been analysed in detail over the past five years. To be considered for the list at all, the company had to have an annual revenue of a minimum of 100,000 euros and then at least 1.5 million euros back in 2019. Consequently, the company had to record growth above 35.5 percent. By comparison, Submarine achieved total growth of 221.4 percent, its company revenue in 2019 stood at a staggering 4.5 million euros, and had 77 employees.
In the year when the coronavirus spread across the world, the Croatian Submarine company exceeded the annual revenue they acheived in 2019 by an impressive 30 percent and it will be interesting to observe the order on that same list for 2021, writes N1. Of course, these are just a few of the strict criteria that companies had to meet, and with its results, Submarine became the only non-technological company from the Republic of Croatia to be listed, ranking as the 720th fastest growing company according to the Financial Times.
This is not the only recognition for the team behind Submarine. It is worth recalling that back in 2019 they entered the list of 50 places in which you can eat the best burger in the world according to the readers of the Big 7 Travel portal, which has a community of 1.5 million readers.
"We totally adjusted the way in which we do business way back at the very beginning of the pandemic. Agility and adaptation to new business conditions is the key to any company's success. Investing in knowledge, new technologies and strengthening the management team has borne fruit. We´re extremely proud of this recognition and I once again would like to congratulate all members of the Submarine team!¨ concluded Dragoljub Bozovic, the founder and CEO of Submarine.
Despite the ongoing pandemic and all of the economic knock-on effects which accompany it, the Croatian Submarine company opened two new restaurants. In 2021, they plan to open five more throughout Croatia, thus fulfilling their mission to provide pleasure and the enjoyment of organic burgers throughout the country.
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March the 3rd, 2021 - The former PPK Velebit Gospic industrial centre has has new life breathed into it in the economic sense thanks to two dedicated Croatian companies.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the former industrial complex of the former PPK Velebit Gospic, which is characterised by its large and imposing silos and warehouses, has been left empty and decaying for decades, while potential investors who do happen to have come and gone all gave up on starting any sort of production within the facility.
Today, that unfortunate picture is changing for the better and the production plant has started being used by two Croatian companies which deal with different activities, which have created new jobs in production with the aim of further expansion. These are Plastruktor and Komarna, and they have invested money and time to put the situation in the neglected PPK Velebit Gospic complex into some sort of order.
All the carpentry on the silo was changed, the premises were cleaned, the area around it was properly arranged and the storage areas were put back into operation after a very long time. The owners of the company Plastruktor, Josip and Monika Sincek from Varazdin, have been delving into entrepreneurial waters for about twenty years now. Their company currently employs twelve workers and by the end of the investment cycle, that number should increase to thirty employees. The company´s main business segment relates to the production of windshields and noise barriers, as well as the creation of mobile homes from recycled materials, for which the Sincek couple won a gold medal in the category, a special award from the fair organisers and the Grand Prix of the European Association of Innovators. Their first mobile home was recently delivered from Gospic to Petrinja, as a donation for a family left without accommodation following the devastating earthquake in December 2020.
In addition to this investment in the second part of the complex, along Bilajska street, an entrepreneur from Split, the owner of the company Komarna, Sandro Babic is investing in a plant for the production of tortillas, which should come to life in the period ahead of us. All works are proceeding according to the expected dynamics, and according to the owners, the first tortillas produced in the former PPK Velebit Gospic complex will soon be on Croatian store shelves.
The Mayor of Gospic, Karlo Starcevic, and the Deputy Mayor, Kristina Prsa, as well as their associates, all visited the plant, and the enterprise owners bringing it back to life expressed their joint satisfaction with the current cooperation with the mayor and the professional services undetaken by the Gospic and its local administration, which was made available to them at all times.
With the launch of these two projects, the former PPK Velebit Gospic complex will be operational again after a full thirty years, and if all plans are realised, the people of Gospic could soon get new catering and tourist facilities at the top of the silo, which will surely be an attraction.
This is an example of a very good practice of attracting investors, and in Gospic, according to Mayor Starcevic, new jobs will be created in production when both plants are fully operational and this will be the direction that Gospic will be heading in in the future, and as Starcevic points out, job creation in production is the only sustainable way of ensuring Croatian demographic renewal.
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February the 24th, 2021 - Krk companies are the strongest of all enterprises registered as being headquartered on Croatia's many islands, with impressive revenues to boast of.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, Krk companies enjoyed an amazing 12.1 billion kuna in revenue back in pre-pandemic 2019, a tenth of the total revenue generated by the tourism sector that record year.
When compared to back in 2018, the income of Croatian enterprises operating in various municipalities, towns and cities of Croatia's many inhabited islands increased by a fifth in just one single year, according to the analysis of the Financial Agency (Fina).
The strongest island enterprise registered currently in Croatia is GP Krk with a massive 686.5 million kuna in revenue, followed by Trgovina Krk with 428 million kuna and Jadranka hotels with 299.7 million kuna in revenue.
The analysis of financial statements included 4954 Croatian island enterprises registered across 51 cities and municipalities. They employed 23,977 employees in total, equal to 7.1 percent more than were employed back in 2018. When it comes to total export revenue from such companies, as much as 1.7 billion kuna was calculated.
Unsurprisingly, the most numerous of these island-based enterprises operate in the activities of providing accommodation and food preparation and serving, of which 1108 were analysed, and together they generated 3.2 billion kuna, 26.5 percent of the total revenues of companies based on Croatia's islands.
Unsurprisingly again, tourism activities are also the largest employers: they employ 7,378 workers, which is 30.8 percent of the total number of employees working for island-registered companies. This is followed by trade with 682 companies and 2,874 employees enjoying 2.4 billion kuna in revenue, and construction with 564 companies, 3,195 employees and 1.8 billion kuna in revenue.
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