As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 23rd of July, 2020, Rimac Automobili has appointed Chris Porritt, former chief engineer at Aston Martin, vice president of engineering at Tesla and head of Apple's special projects group, and chief technology officer (CTO). Chris will report directly to founder and CEO Mate Rimac, with a focus on future projects within the company.

Over a career spanning more than three decades, Chris has overseen the development of a range of sports and electric vehicles. During his sixteen years at Aston Martin, he was chief engineer for the limited production of the One-77 and V12 Vantage Zagato hypercars. In 2013, Porritt moved to California where he became vice president of engineering at Tesla, and then moved to Apple where he had a leading role in a group for special projects to develop new products. In addition to his professional career, Chris spends his weekends and free time constructing and racing his own vintage race cars. His experience in the development of luxury supercars at Aston Martin, and electric cars at Tesla that have reshaped the entire industry and enthusiasm for race cars make him the perfect addition to Mate Rimac's talented team.

Mate Rimac, founder and CEO of Rimac Automobile, stated: ''We've started a journey in a country that isn't known for car development. We learned a lot through trial and error as it was difficult to attract people from other countries, which made the whole process challenging but also exciting. I can’t imagine what our journey would be like and how far we'd have come by now if we had Chris from the very beginning. I was worried that people with a lot of experience in the industry wouldn't suit our culture and company spirit. However, as an absolute car lover, who likes to get involved in creating new projects, Chris fit in right from the start. We share the same way of thinking: we want to develop cars that raise the bar, and that are fun and high quality. I can't wait for the results we'll achieve together.''

Chris Porritt, Chief Technology Officer of Rimac Automobiles, stated: ''The opportunity to join Rimac Automobili is the dream of every engineer. Since almost every key component is constructed and designed at Rimac itself, we have real freedom to create something that is completely different from anything else previously developed in the world of super sports cars. Rimac is the perfect place to make good use of my combined experience gained in the development of supercars working for Aston Martin and with electric cars in California. What the team has achieved so far with the development of the C_Two car is phenomenal and I look forward to helping them develop future products that will push the boundaries.''

This year is a key period for the presentation of the latest all-electric Rimac car, codenamed C_Two, as prototypes are continuously constructed, used and tested for the purpose of global homologation. Starting in 2021, 150 examples of Mate Rimac's brand new car will be constructed manually on the new production line in Veliko Trgovišće. All of the major systems and components for the C_Two were developed and built within Rimac Automobili itself.

Mate Rimac's C_Two will reach a speed of 0-100 km/h in less than just two seconds and a top speed of 258 mp/h in its final production form. These values ​​were achieved by developing the original C_Two concept and then with later prototypes. In parallel with the development of the C_Two car, Rimac Automobili's business continued to grow, as evidenced by the increase in Porsche's ownership stake in the business to 15.5 percent, while the Hyundai Motor Group invested 80 million euros in the business. The latter announcements join a long list of Mate Rimac’s earlier partners, including Koenigsegg, Automobile Pininfarina and Aston Martin.

For more, follow our business page.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has thrown a major spanner in the works economically in every possible sense, but one Varazdin company hasn't let it get in the way of their production, and they're doing better than anyone could have possibly imagined given the dire circumstances.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 19th of July, 2020, approximately 1,500 solar panels are produced on a daily basis at the plant at the entrance to the Northern Croatian town of Varazdin. Coronavirus has not harmed this Varazdin company's business, and the demand for their products is greater than they can manage to keep up with and produce.

"The price of one solar panel, some standard type, is 500, 600 kuna, depending on the power. And of course we know that for installation we always need a few panels. It all depends on the level of consumption of the house, whether it's two, three. four, or five kilowatts. So, the installation comes in costing a few thousand. Let's say from 7,000 - 8,000 kuna, all the way up to 20,000 kuna,'' explained the Stjepan Talan, the director of the Varazdin company Solvis, for RTL.

There is almost no part of the world where these solar panels aren't producing solar energy - from Germany, Italy, France to Canada and the United States. Their solar panels are also sought by the global technology giant - Google.

''Our most promising customer outside is in America, Google, a company that builds its own data centres and where we work for them with special cover solar panels,'' said Talan.

The factory belonging to this Varazdin company produces about half a million solar panels a year. Unfortunately, when we talk about solar installations, Croatia is at the very bottom of the European Union, but despite that, general interest in solar panels here in Croatia continues to grow significantly.

In order to encourage people to produce their own energy as much as possible and be energy independent, the state offers co-financing up to a maximum of 75,000 kuna.

For more on Croatian companies and products, follow Made in Croatia.

By the end of the year, up to five thousand gas users in Osijek will have the opportunity to read their gas meters on a monthly basis using digital technology thanks to four Croatian companies.

As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 17th of July, 2020, this is the single largest gas metre digitisation project in the Republic of Croatia and the first to be done on the so-called 0G (zero G) network.

HEP Plin in Osijek, in cooperation with four Croatian companies that deal with technology, started upgrading the existing gas meters with devices which will enable the automatic sending of data over the Internet, and it will remain as such for the next ten years without the need for any additional interventions.

Damir Pecusak, Executive Director of HEP Plina, says that he is satisfied with the partnership of these Croatian companies and the solution that is being offered for the Eastern Croatian city of Osijek.

"The partnership of these Croatian companies in integration, hardware and software development resulted in the rapid implementation and ensuring of scalability, and the competence and commitment of IoT Net Adria partners from Sigfox's ecosystem proved to be a key success factor in developing a cost-effective and reliable automated gas meter,'' explained Pecusak.

The hardware device itself, which reads the status of the gas meter via a camera, does so several times a day, and encodes it so that it can be easily and quickly transferred further. It was developed by the Croatian company Byte Lab.

By the end of 2020, as many as 5000 users will get the opportunity to read their gas meters monthly using the most advanced technology.

This domestic R&D factory develops custom hardware for companies such as 3M, Philips and ABUS, and last year, it launched its debut hardware product. Multicom, which has developed a number of its own solutions in the field of billing and transaction monitoring, and the Osijek software company Axis are working on the software and other points of integration of this project.

HEP's subsidiary HEP Telekomunikacije (Telecommunications) provided a data acceptance service to the data processing platform, the second key part of the IoT (Internet of Things) solution, because it performs data verification and pairing with HEP Plin's billing system.

The data transfer itself was performed by the company IoT Net Adria, which manages the 0G network here in Croatia as part of the French startup Sigfox.

Ranko Rezek, CEO of IoT Net Adria, says that this is the first large-scale project in which all the advantages of 0G technology can be showcased. It is a wireless network, it operates throughout Croatia, and it specialises in the exchange of data between machines.

Previously, IoT Net Adria presented the first commercial user of its network, Marina Punat, who developed an IoT system that allows for the remote monitoring of the situation on yachts and which is already used by more than 400 yachtsmen.

''In Osijek, we've shown that a mix of smart devices with more than ten years of autonomy, our global IoT network and the capabilities of digital platforms, all allow utilities to quickly, cheaply and securely connect their readers anywhere in the country and thus increase efficiency, sustainability and customer satisfaction,'' noted Rezek.

He added that he sees this project as a pilot for the digital transformation of the entire gas industry in Croatia, as well as for increasing the value in that industry in general, from distributors all the way to the end users. He stated that the project reduces the cost of the manual reading of gas meters and enables the monitoring of the situation in the gas network in real time.

"The HEP Plina digitalisation project provides users with an insight into real consumption, estimates of consumption costs, as well as an analysis of historical and current data," concluded Rezek.

For more on Croatian companies, follow our business page.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes on the 7th of July, 2020, there is a deadline from the 7th to the end of this month for submitting applications for a new type of financial support, which is envisaged for Croatian micro-enterprises (as small employers) affected by the ongoing coronavirus crisis in the amount of 2,000 kuna per worker for the month of July.

According to the projections of the Ministry of Labour, the new measure of the Croatian Employment Service (CES) for preserving jobs could be used by small employers in relation to 100,000 workers.

It is also important in their particular case that this support is accompanied by contributions that need to be made in the appropriate amount, so their beneficiaries should also count on that part of the financial assistance.

According to State Secretary Dragan Jelic of the aforementioned ministry, as employers, Croatian micro-enterprises are considered the most vulnerable to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

"This is an attempt to avoid the dismissal of workers, ie, the sudden entry of former employees into the unemployment register, and the closure of these companies," explained Jelic. Additionally, the new measure includes members of the company in the position of director if they too are technically employed.

The new measure can be used by all eligible employers who have registered their activity by the end of February 2020 and are properly registered in the HZMO system. This support is provided by workers listed by the employer at the time of application, but not by employees listed after the 30th of June. No support can be obtained for them, and the same is the case with some of those who outgrow the framework of what a Croatian micro-enterprise is supposed to be because they employ a total of 10 or more workers through several entities of the same founder.

In addition, non-payers of wages, as well as renters of private accommodation and family farms that aren't in the system for the payment of profit or income tax, will remain without support.

The criterion for Croatian micro-enterprises is a decrease in revenue by at least 50 percent in June 2020 when compared to June 2019, based on the VAT return for those months, while Croatian micro-enterprises who aren't in the VAT system, this needs to be evidenced based on a table of their revenue decline. If the employer has been operating for less than twelve months, then the decrease in turnover is determined in relation to February 2020.

For employers who employ more than 10 workers, part-time support has been introduced, which covers a potentially larger number of beneficiaries than the previous sub-measure did, and is calculated for between 100 and 150 thousand workers. About 400 million euros are available for this measure through the EC's Sure programme.

This aid is granted for the temporary introduction of full-time work for workers with certain additional requirements, but not less than half, and up to a maximum of 2,000 kuna per month net per worker.

As the director of the CES, Ante Loncar, pointed out, the Institute tries to process requests for these measures within 10 days of receiving a request with all of the necessary and completed documentation, and, after a positive assessment of the request, make the actual aid payments by the 20th or 30th of the month for the previous month.

In addition, after three months of the temporary suspension of the remaining measures of the active employment policy from July the 1st, they are active again, and this includes perhaps the most popular measure of all - support for self-employed people.

"This measure was reactivated with certain changes in the criteria necessary for the quality selection of aid beneficiaries who really want to go into entrepreneurship and for the better use of aid funds, all with the aim of stimulating economic activity," stated Loncar.

For more, follow our business page.

As Novac writes on the 30th of June, 2020, as part of the Business Development and Innovation Croatia programme, whose main goal is to create added value and sustainable growth for Croatian companies in the field of the green industry innovation and blue growth, the Croatian private sector has a massive 20,128,295 euros at its disposal.

The aforementioned funds are available through open calls and tenders to support the part-financing of the project. The programme is managed by Innovation Norway as the fund manager for the EEA and Norway Grants business programmes, and was presented at today's online conference held in cooperation with the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK).

"The goal of the plan for the economy is not only internal economic stability, but also better connection with the developed economies of the world. One of them is certainly Norway,'' said Ivan Skaric from the Sector for Industrial Development and Innovation System of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, emphasising that the cooperation between the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the organisation Innovation Norway began back in 2016.

Potential areas for cooperation will be defined jointly, by comparing the areas from the Croatian smart specialisation strategy and the corresponding Norwegian strategy, the so-called Dream commitment. Thus, the greatest potential for cooperation was observed in the field of energy and sustainable development, followed by food and bioeconomy, and transport and mobility. Magnar Ødelien, the director for EEA and Norway Grants in the Innovation Norway organisation, said that a strong partner in Croatia is crucial for the realisation of this project.

"So far, we've had extremely high-quality cooperation with the Croatian Chamber of Commerce," said Ødelien.

The Innovation Norway programme director Anne Lise Rognlidalen presented the programme and the first call. "It encompasses three dimensions of sustainability, economic, environmental and social, by creating jobs. The application may relate to the application or development of innovative technologies, processes or solutions,'' said Rognlidalen. Applications will be open from July to November the 15th, 2020.

The programme is funded by a Norwegian grant and is part of the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism (EEA and Norway Grants) for the period 2014-2021. The goal is to reduce economic inequalities by financing projects that will increase the competitiveness and profitability of Croatian companies. The programme will seek to encourage and develop long-term business cooperation between Croatian companies and those from Norway. It is especially aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises of a modest technological level. A small grant scheme was introduced for them to lower their participation threshold.

The main focus is Green Industry Innovation (the manufacturing and processing industry) and Blue Growth (the maritime industry, small-scale tourism, etc.). Applicants are eligible companies that will become "greener" and/or diversify their product range/increase their capacity/introduce changes in their production processes.

Examples of projects financed by these grants in other countries were also presented, such as the use of technology for "greener" laundries, automation in furniture production, packaging in the dairy industry, the automation of plastic bottle sorting, the modernisation of cement plants, etc. With the support of HGK, Business Development and Innovation Croatia is managed by Innovation Norway, a public body of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Fisheries and the main instrument of the Norwegian Government for the development of Norwegian companies.

With a network of local offices and more than 30 offices around the world, they enable companies to grow internationally and build partnerships, and there is also a banking license. Currently, Innovation Norway is the fund manager for the EEA and Norway Grants business programmes in Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, and a branch office was recently established in the City of Zagreb.

For more on Croatian companies, follow our business page.

Since Croatia made it mandatory to wear masks when using public transport, masks of all kinds have once again become a much sought-after commodity. One Zagreb company, Delt Papir, wants to be the one to cover all of Croatia's mask related needs.

As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 26th of June, 2020, assessing the situation on the market in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, the management board of Delt Papir invested 1.5 million kuna in a new plant for the production of certified three-layer surgical masks.

The coronavirus pandemic seems to have entered its second phase, and after a short period of stagnation, Croatia is again approaching higher and higher numbers of people testing positive for the new coronavirus. Over recent days, some epidemiological measures in Croatia have been tightened, and one of the key obligations is, as stated, to wear protective masks on public transport.

Therefore, questions about whether there will be a repetition of the scenario of mask shortages and a jump in their price yet again have come to the forefront.

However, it should be noted that in this "wave", the domestic industry has become a little bit more prepared because more and more Croatian companies have included the production of protective masks in their respective ranges. One of them is Zagreb's Delt Papir, which, as they themselves point out, is the first Croatian company which boasts completely local production of paper products for hygienic use.

As mentioned above, Delt Papir has already invested 1.5 million kuna in a new plant for the production of certified three-layer surgical masks. The investment was completed over recent days, and was realised in just two months.

As the director Alen Krajacic, who performs this function with Kruno Kisak, explains, the decision to produce surgical masks came from the need to protect their own employees, because there were simply not enough masks on the market to buy. Now their plan is to provide sufficient masks for domestic use.

Their production capacity is 25,000 masks per shift, and the number of shifts will, he says, depend on market demands.

Aware of the fact that local production is currently the mainstay of the crisis-shaken economy and that their production activities create a significant share of market recovery, with this project, as well as all previous investments, Delt Papir wants to make a strong contribution to the Croatian economy.

When planning a new production facility, we primarily wanted to ensure a calmer preparation of the domestic market for a possible second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Surgical masks are a very useful product without which at this moment we can practically not work in a team, use public transport, or make a purchase.

''Due to their special structure and filtering characteristics, surgical masks have proven effective in preventing the spread of droplets that occur during speech and breathing, and in everyday life, conversation is what forms the basis of work and life,'' explains Delt Papir's Alen Krajacic.

In addition to everyday life, we've witnessed a global crisis and a shortage of protective equipment which is necessary for the operation of medical institutions. Delt Papir says they want to make it easier for Croatian healthcare institutions to do their jobs without needing to wait a long time for shipments of masks coming in from abroad.

Although the situation with the procurement of protective equipment in Croatia has stabilised, the owners of Delt Papir emphasise the importance of domestic production, which in the coming period could be of great importance for the uninterrupted stability in the supply of protective equipment.

''Our hospitals and other healthcare institutions must, at all times, be able to supply their employees with protective equipment, especially protective surgical masks that are changed several times during shifts and are indispensable in working with patients.

Clearly, we hope and eagerly expect an adequate medical solution to end the battle with this virus, but time is relentless and we don't want to simply leave things to chance. Good production planning will certainly make a big difference if a new wave of coronavirus does occur,'' adds Kruno Kisak.

Delt Papir emphasises that the private sector is sure to face a battle with the ongoing and uncertain market turmoil, but companies engaged in the production of products which are of significant importance in line with the emerging economic needs should certainly continue to be supported because many jobs and people's health depend on them.

Delt Papir generated impressive revenues of 129 million kuna last year, which marked growth of 14 percent. They employ about 100 workers and process about 12,000 tonnes of paper a year. They ended last year with 50 percent of their earnings coming from exports, and in the first two months of this year, until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, their exports rose to 65 percent. Masks are produced both for export and for the domestic market, so they have prepared box packaging in both Croatian and English.

"Export orders are constantly arriving, especially due to the fact that the masks are certified, and like paper clothing, we export them from the EU all the way to the Middle East. The production itself takes place through the parent company Delt Papir, and the distribution company Hygiene 4 You is in charge of distribution,'' explain Krajacic and Kisak.

For more, follow our business page.

One Slavonian company has come up with an innovative idea that turns unwanted plant and animal waste, among other things, into something much more than useful for as many as 12000 households...

As Novac writes on the 24th of June, 2020, in Croatia, there are a total of 1230 solar power plants with an installed capacity of 53,434.24 kW and 40 biogas plants with a total installed capacity of 44,722.00 kW, and there are four biogas plants with a total capacity of 5,200.00 kW which aren't yet connected to the grid.

When it comes to biogas plants, the basis of energy production is primarily in the use of manure from farms, as well as silage and other organic residues, where the decomposition of organic matter produces biogas, whose combustion in a cogeneration plant produces electricity. Therefore, it's rather logical that a larger number of biogas plants are found as parts of companies in Baranja and Slavonia, where most of the country's domestic livestock is raised. One Slavonian company that has several biogas plants to its name is the Zito group, Glas Slavonije writes.

According to Ivan Pandurevic, Executive Director of the Investment, Development and IT Department of the Zito Group, the company has a large production and electrical energy has a larger share in total energy consumption.

Our goal is to increase the share of renewable energy sources in all locations of the group in order to reduce our dependence on significant changes in the price of electricity. Thus, the photovoltaic power plant is another source of electricity production in the Zito Group. We convert solar energy into electricity without polluting the environment. In energy conversion, we use the most modern and completely safe equipment available on the market, and we always give preference to Croatian contractors and equipment manufacturers. It's important to note that we have a peak consumption per day, so we consume the produced electricity when the greatest production need is, for example, for cooling, ventilation, or some other production process,'' explained Pandurevic, adding that when it comes to investments made by this Slavonian company, in 2020, they're primarily focused on rationalising their energy consumption.

"So far, we've produced more electricity from renewable energy sources than we've consumed. The overall proposal of the investment plan for 2020 at the group level stands at sixty million kuna,'' noted Pandurevic, adding that they are currently busy constructing two solar power plants of about 600 kW, and they're also designing several solar power plants with a total capacity of more than three MW, which contributes to sustainable development and meeting the set goals of the company.

''In addition to the two existing biogas plants - Novi Agrar and Mala Branjevina, the Orlovnjak biogas plant with an installed capacity of 1.7 MW was put into operation back in 2016, and the Klis biogas plant with a capacity of 1.4 MW was put into function in 2018, thus increasing the share of renewable sources of energy in electricity production, which also contributes to the national stability of the electricity system, as well as the implementation of the common European Union (EU) energy policy prescribed by the National Action Plan for RES 2020. Our plants produce almost 45 GWh of electricity per year, which provides electricity for twelve thousand households,'' concluded Pandurevic of this forward-thinking Slavonian company.

For more, follow our business page.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 18th of June, 2020, Mate Rimac recently opened a new factory in Zagorje, more precisely in Veliko Trgovišće, which is intended exclusively for the serial production of his electric vehicles. The new factory should enable Rimac Automobili to start delivering finished C_Two vehicles to customers as early as next year.

Noting that during this year, Rimac Automobili plans to publish the final design and name of the vehicle, given that the C_Two is still being treated as a prototype, and not the final, homologated vehicle, or a finished product. Initially, the first deliveries to customers were supposed to be made by the end of this year, but this was slowed down by the coronavirus crisis and the quarantine.

The brand new Zagorje plant covers 5036 square metres in total and represents a 60 percent increase in the Rimac Automobili's overall production capacities. Namely, in Sveta Nedjelja, where its headquarters are located, the company has a production plant, a centre for R&D development and other departments on an area covering ​​8345 square metres.

The plant in Veliko Trgovišće, as has since been learned, is a continuation of the expansion of the company's business and won't replace the existing plant in Sveta Nedjelja near Zagreb. Rimac Automobili isn't giving up on the project it announced last year near the Kerestinec castle, on an area covering ​​250,000 square metres. Mate Rimac then pointed out that he wanted to have the company's future headquarters, R&D centre, factory, test site and campus with various facilities located there in Kerestinec.

State Property Minister Goran Maric and Sveta Nedelja Mayor Dario Zurovec have already prepared the ground for the campus by signing a 6.5m-kuna state land donation agreement. Mate Rimac says they're sticking to the plans.

''We're accelerating the production of prototypes, so this new investment is necessary for us to be able to deliver vehicles to our customers next year. We're still working on the campus project, our long-term location, but given the size and timeline of that project, it's imperative that we have the appropriate facilities in place by then,'' Mate Rimac explained.

In the new plant, Rimac Automobili will produce thirteen C_Two prototypes by the end of this year, which will be used for testing and homologation. Most of these vehicles will be destroyed in crash tests and other tests.

So far, the company has produced a total of four. Rimac Automobili plans to make a global homologation for the C_Two model so that it can be sold worldwide in the final version in the same way as the vehicles of all other brands have been. All of this includes the production of ten vehicles in pre-series production, which is also something they intend to realise by the end of 2020.

The company explained that full homologation, without any shortcuts, is a process that takes three to four years from the first concept to full prototypes and finally to actual vehicles out on the road. Rimac Automobili is sticking to those deadlines, and the first C_Two was presented at the Geneva Motor Show back in 2018.

"The only way to accomplish all of this is through rigorous crash tests that require different prototypes, each with a specific purpose, so, for example - some prototypes from the plant in Veliko Trgovišće will go directly to crash testing, and others will be used for other types of tests,'' noted Rimac.

In order to be able to produce the required number of vehicles by the end of the year, and thus to test future serial production, the company opened this new plant in Zagorje. Its initial production capacity is four vehicles per month. In addition, they have shortened the production process to five weeks and it is now twice as fast. The new plant consists of five main zones.

''We’ve worked hard to bring the C_Two to the level it's at now and I want our customers around the world to feel the enjoyment of 1914 horsepower in a fully electric hyper vehicle,'' said Rimac, adding that he is proud that they achieved all this in the die conditions created by the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

"We didn't reduce the number of employees or their salaries," said Rimac. He noted that investors are still following their moves. Last September, Porsche increased its stake from 10 to 15.5 percent. The first investors in Rimac Automobili appeared six years ago. Then Colombian Frank Kanayet Yepes, Chinese Sinocop Resources and the owner of Forbes invested 10 million US dollars in the first investment round.

It was the first investment in a technology startup based here in Croatia. A year later, Rimac Automobili won its first major development deal. Three years ago, the Chinese Camel Group invested a massive 30 million euros in Rimac Automobili. A couple of years ago, Mate Rimac presented the amazing C_Two, agreed with Camel to build a factory in China worth one billion kuna, won a 600 million kuna R&D deal and received an investment of 18.7 million euros from Porsche in exchange for a 10 percent stake in the company.

After that, Hyundai and KIa invested huge amounts. The company's financial indicators for 2019 are not yet known. According to Poslovna Hrvatska (Business Croatia) in 2018, Rimac Automobili had revenues of 72.7 million kuna, a loss of 19.9 million kuna and investments in fixed assets of as much as 174.6 million kuna.

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

As Lucija Spiljak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 13th of June, 2020, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a number of Croatian companies and employers have applied for government aid to preserve jobs in coronavirus-affected activities.

The aid, which comes as part of a special government measure, is intended for sectors whose business cannot be opened for objective reasons and for those which have experienced a (proven) decline of more than 50 percent, which relates to the terms of extended aid for June (it was previously intended solely for March, April and May, when it referred to a decline of more than 20 percent), given that the planned support was for three months - March in the amount of 3250 kuna and for April and May in the amount of 4000 kuna.

However, Croatian economic activity has been disrupted in the vast majority of industries, so the Croatian Employment Service's Board of Directors introduced a form of job preservation support for the month of June this year and amended the criteria for May 2020. For June, Croatian companies and other beneficiaries must submit a new application via the online application by June the 30th, although they'll have already used the aid, and the amount of the subsidy will be 4000 kuna.

According to the CES, the deadline for the payment of this support is the 20th of the month for the previous month, and in the case of Croatian employers having hired new employees in the meantime, no further government support can be requested for them.

According to the data received from the CES, by June the 6th this year, more than two billion kuna in support had been paid out for 98,432 employers and 526,876 workers in April. However, many Croatian companies complained that the requested funds, which were granted to them, arrived late, and out of a total of 113,396 received applications for support, a total of 6508 applications were rejected by the same date throughout the whole of Croatia.

The reason for the refusal is listed as the non-compliance with the defined conditions and criteria.

"Although the deadline for the payment of support to beneficiaries for the previous month is the 15th of the month, due to the large amount of data and delays in submitting documentation in some cases, the control process takes longer than what was originally planned and therefore the payments are arriving more slowly than we expected. Namely, given that the condition for the continuation of the payment of support is the delivery of proof of payment of employee salaries for the previous month for all workers for whom the support was paid out, the Institute conducts detailed controls by matching data with the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute and the Tax Administration,'' they claim from the CES.

To briefly recall, the target groups of Croatian companies and employers eligible for the payment of this support are employers in the sectors of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, transport and storage, accommodation and food and beverage service activities, administrative and support service activities, organisers of various public events and ancillary activities such as companies who deal with equipment rental, audio and video recording, ticket sales, hall rental, along with other companies that generate most of their revenue from events and public gatherings.

The CES also lists Croatian companies, crafts, family farms and natural persons who are independent contractors and self employed individuals as eligible business entities. The CES also reports that they are continuously monitoring the situation on the domestic labour market along with the Ministry of Labour, on the basis of which the need to extend the implementation of this particular economic measure will be further considered.

Given the fact that Croatian companies have stabilised their operations with the easing of the formerly stringent anti-epidemic measures, some have decided to repay the financial aid they received from the government for three months - 973 Croatian companies have made that choice.

There is a brewing problem among Croatian companies and employers who have applied for benefits, had them granted, but have not paid their employees their salaries.

The list from the Tax Administration includes a total of 1237 Croatian companies/employers - of which 1185 are legal entities and the rest of 53 are obrtnici (owners of crafts), who haven't paid out employee salaries for a total of 2310 workers they employ.

This concerning data on the literal non-payment of wages is based on submitted JOPPD forms in which employers reported the non-payment of wages for the period from January to March this year. The first list of non-payers of salaries was published by the Tax Administration way back on July the 15th, 2014, and it included 5,619 legal entities that hadn't paid salaries to 19,449 workers during the first quarter of 2014.

The conclusion is that since 2014, since the lists of non-payers were published, the number of non-payers has decreased by almost five times, and the number of non-payers for only one worker (probably the owner of the entity paying themselves) has increased. Worryingly, tsix activities that are on the list of non-payers are also in the top eleven activities that received the largest payments of government aid for the month of March.

For more, follow our business page.

As Lucija Spiljak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 11th of June, 2020, the Zagreb company Dizz Concept, which became famous on both Croatian and foreign markets with its award-winning pop-up kitchen concept, has now presented yet another new product called Office Shell.

Office Shell is an innovative workstation that provides isolation and privacy to employees who are working in open-ended offices. The unit is about two metres in diameter and occupies less than four square metres in total. The team from this particular Zagreb company has invested around 300,000 kuna in the project and worked hard on it for about a year, and they're already receiving orders.

The director of the company, Darko Špiljarić, who is also a designer, explained that this new concept enables an increase in productivity, and in the coronavirus dominated era, it represents effective protection against the spread of infectious diseases of all kinds in such offices. Employees can thus achieve a good balance between working in a private environment and still working together, and it is suitable for use in new or existing offices. In yesterday's online presentation, the Zagreb company, Dizz Concept, presented the prototype in more detail and explained the concept.

''Office Shell provides additional protection against viruses and bacteria and also helps alleviate stress in a green environment. The design is evolving and remains subject to change. It will be individually adaptable to each user, and during the production, we used natural materials in order to create a comfortable working environment that doesn't require a period of getting used to,'' explained Špiljarić.

Office Shell can be successfully combined with ordinary office furniture, and assembling or disassembling the unit takes less than twenty minutes. It is suitable, among other things, even for short-term rent. The domestic premiere of Office Shell will take place in September at Zagreb Design Week, and a month later it will be presented at the world's leading office furniture fair - Orgatec 2020, which is being held in Cologne, Germany, as part of the Five Working Worlds exhibition.

This innovative Zagreb company revealed that they have sold several hundred Pop-up PIA kitchens in dozens of countries around the world. What makes them interesting to buyers is that they are very easy to fold and open and thus ''save'' space. The vast majority of copies sold, they added, are exports, while here on the domestic market, they mostly dealt with smaller projects and occasional individual orders.

For more on Croatian innovation, follow Made in Croatia.