December the 7th, 2022 - After three (very long) decades of negotiations, the representatives of Croatia and the USA in Washington are finally set to conclude the Croatia-USA double taxation agreement today. Croatia is otherwise the only nation in the EU and NATO that hasn't yet regulated this relationship.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, back during previous years, analysts assessed that the signing of the Croatia-USA double taxation agreement, which will finally result in the avoidance of having to pay tax on income in both nations to both nations, will not result in a sudden rush of American investors to Croatia, nor will it open up new businesses for Croatian companies on the American market. What it will primarily do is result in considerable benefits for companies that are already operating, as they will be less burdened by tax payments. It will also increase their level of competitiveness overall.

However, circumstances have changed somewhat over more recent years, and it seems that the number of those who will benefit from the settlement of fiscal relations between these two countries on each side of the Atlantic Ocean will be more significant. What will this mean exactly, and who will benefit the most from the signing of the historic Croatia-USA double taxation agreement?

Climbing the ladder

The USA was not among the major investors in Croatia for a very long time, but that has changed quite significantly in recent years. Steve Bubalo, an American entrepreneur with Croatian roots, has the longest investment experience here. He invested in the Vrana agricultural farm near Biograd in Zadar, as well as in rural tourism in Baranja, and one of his big takeovers was certainly Barr's takeover of Pliva back in 2006, which was then taken over by the Israeli company Teva.

After Croatia joined the EU back in July 2013, and especially over the last few years, more serious investments followed, such as IBM's investment in the Technical Support Centre in Zagreb, two years ago New York's One Equity Partners invested 200 million dollars in Infobip, and this summer, Goldman Sachs, together with the Japanese SoftBank, invested 500 million euros in the remarkable Rimac Group.

At the same time, in Savski Marof, the start of work on the new production facility of the American company Pfizer for the production of innovative biological drugs, in which it is investing 100 million euros, was marked. The USA is thus climbing the investment ladder, and from 1993 to the end of the second quarter of this year, more than 595 million euros had been invested in Croatia, and thanks to the latest investments successfully ticked off, it took 15th place on the list of investors in this country.

It's also interesting to note that Croatian investments over in the USA over the past three decades, in Croatian circumstances at least, aren't insignificant. They amount to more than 73 million euros, and among those Croatian companies that started production in the USA is, for example, Podravka. HS Produkt from Karlovac has also been among the main exporters for years, along with Pliva.

Trade has also been growing in recent years, especially in the last year on the back of US LNG imports. In terms of trade, Croatia is mainly focused on the market of the EU and neighbouring non-EU countries, but thanks to LNG terminal on Krk, the USA has moved up to the seventh place among the main trade partners.

In the first nine months of 2022, imports from the USA into Croatia amounted to more than 2.07 billion euros and at the annual level they increased by 703%, and goods from Croatia were exported for 349 million euros (marking a decrease of 17%).

According to AmCham's estimates, the Croatia-USA double taxation agreement will have a positive effect on the transfer of knowledge, due to the costs of withholding taxes on the provision of certain services and royalties, and the costs of labour taxation, which is particularly important for the IT sector and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Croatian companies that establish subsidiaries over in the USA are currently subject to federal and state income tax, and dividend payments are subject to a 30% tax. Since the corporate tax rate in Croatia stands at 12 or 18%, AmCham estimates that the cumulative US tax rate is very discouraging for Croatian companies.

A company in Croatia owned by a larger American company pays profit tax at the rate of 18%, and according to the parent company in the USA, it must make three payments per year, for interest and royalties, and then for dividends, it pays withholding tax at rates of 12 and 15 %, and only the net after-tax amount can be paid to the US parent company.

This Croatia-USA double taxation agreement will make it possible to get rid of these payments once and for all, and make it so that the full amount is paid to the parent company, which makes Croatia more attractive as an investment and business destination overall.

"This is a significant step for the business community both in the USA and Croatia, which for many years advocated the initiation of negotiations on the signing of such an agreement. This step is particularly important for AmCham and its members, given that it prepared the initial arguments for the conclusion of the agreement back in 2018 and brings together companies that are most involved in trade and investment flows between Croatia and the USA," said Andrea Doko Jelusic, the executive director of AmCham Croatia.

The conclusion of this historic (and long-awaited) agreement will bring a lower financial burden for companies, and here on the Croatian side, it will be especially interesting for the IT sector, as well as for the food and pharmaceutical industry, while on the American side, it will open space for cooperation with small and medium-sized companies that haven't been represented in Croatia until now.

The Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) also welcomes the signing of the Agreement on the Avoidance of Double Taxation between Croatia and the USA, and points out that, although there's still some time to go before its full implementation, it is to be expected that it will have a positive impact on the overall economic relations between the two countries, mutual trade, and will especially facilitate mutual investments.

For more, make sure to check out our news section.

December the 6th, 2022 - The well known Croatian company Koncar is an internationally recognised leader, and it has been working intensively on the creation of new or the revitalisation of old energy plants for around 100 years now. The revitalisation of a plant in Greece is now in the works.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, in very few segments of the global market does Croatia occupy such a large share as it does in the energy sector, especially in terms of transformers and hydropower plants.

The biggest name in this field is undoubtedly Koncar, which has been working on new or revitalising existing energy capacities for about 100 years, and the latest example of this is over in Greece. To speak more specifically, Koncar recently signed a contract with the Greek electricity company (Public Power Corporation - PPC) in the capital of Athens for the first phase of the revitalisation of the Messochora hydroelectric plant in Greece.

The first phase of the works

Several Koncar Group companies, led by Inzenjering/Engineering (KET), will participate in this Greek revitalisation project. As part of the first phase of the revitalisation of this plant, the testing and analysis of all of the equipment at the hydroelectric power plant will be carried out, and all of the preparatory work will be done for the first commissioning of this plant.

As explained by Gordan Kolak, the president of the Koncar Management Board, the HE Messochora project was initially contracted in the years following the end of the Homeland War, back during a period when the Koncar Group was working very intensively to return to its former markets, which included that of nearby Greece.

"We won't be exaggerating by saying that this particular project was particularly crucial for Inzenjering, but also for other companies from within the wider Koncar Group," said Kolak. It regards a plant with an installed capacity of 2x90 MW, the equipping of which (with all kinds of electromechanical equipment) was contracted by Koncar back in 1996 amid strong international competition on a "turnkey" basis.

The implementation of the project lasted from 1996 to 2002, with Koncar successfully fulfilling all of its contractual obligations, and the equipment was delivered and installed within the given deadlines. However, PPC faced certain administrative problems due to which it could not fill the reservoir with the water required for testing, and ultimately ensure the operation of this plant.

Therefore, in agreement with PPC, the equipment was finally taken over and preserved so that the project could continue when the conditions for it were properly created. Few expected that this would happen only after a twenty whole years, after Koncar, following several months of negotiations with PPC, finally signed the contract by which it returned to this Greek hydroelectric plant.

"Taking into account the attitude of our Greek partner who wants to put this plant into operation with as much originally produced equipment as possible, it's evident that this is an extremely large technological and engineering challenge, because in the meantime, several technological changes have taken place on the market for many types of installed equipment, which is typical for the passage of this amount of time. Therefore, members of Koncar's teams from the original phase of the plant's construction will participate in the work on the ''new'' Messochora. These kinds of challenges are at the very core of Koncar's expertise, performance according to special customer requirements and the adaptation of equipment and systems of different generations,'' said the Zagreb-based company.

To date, Koncar has secured references in as many as 130 markets around the world and delivered more than 400,000 transformers of various types, voltage levels and powers, fully or partially built and revitalised tens of thousands of transformer plants up to 400 kV, as well as 400 hydroelectric power plants, and produced revitalised about 700 generators.

The production of hydrogen generators in their facilities began back in 1947, and the first one was put into operation the following year at the HPP Mariborski otok, which operated successfully for more than forty years.

By 1957, 100 generators had been delivered, and in that very year, the first export job in Pakistan was achieved by Koncar for HE Chichoki Mallian. Their biggest turnkey project took place in 1988, when they delivered equipment for the 295 MW Bechme HPP in Iraq.

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

December the 6th, 2022 - The remarkable Croatian inventor Mate Rimac has rather unsurprisingly been nominated as businessman of the year by both Poslovni Dnevnik (Business Diary) and Vecernji list.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/VL/Tanja Ivancic writes, the expert jury nominated Croatian inventor Mate Rimac for businessman of the year this year, and even more is expected in the future from the young leader of the Rimac Group, who managed to create yet another Croatian unicorn through persistent work and dogged determination against everything thrown at him.

For now, Rimac can certainly boast of having produced an incredible hypercar – recently declared the fastest electric car in the entire world, which also holds the record for the fastest acceleration of any car. Namely, the Nevera reached an impressive speed of 412 km/h, which makes it the fastest electric production car on the face of Earth, while the record for acceleration was 8.582 seconds per quarter mile, which was set back in 2021.

The Nevera electric car is otherwise Rimac's premium product that has since entered into small-scale production. Back in June this year, the company revealed the release of the first Nevera on the roads, which was fitted with 000 plates and wasn't for sale, and then, they said, deliveries to clients from around the world began.

They also emphasised from the Rimac Group that the production of the Nevera required five years of development and testing, equal to an incomprehensible 1.6 million hours of deep research.

Along with the production of the stunning Nevera at the Jankomir plant in Zagreb, what marked this year for Croatian inventor Mate Rimac was the investment round that he closed back in March and the start of the construction of the Rimac campus in Sveta Nedelja. In June, Mate Rimac reported that the Rimac Group had successfully collected 3.78 billion kuna or 500 million euros in investment round D, which brought the market value of the Rimac Group company to over 2 billion euros in total.

The key new investors were SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with participation from existing shareholders of the Rimac Group, including Porsche and Investindustrial. All of the investors now have a share in the Rimac Group, while Mate Rimac himself, the company's founder and executive director of the company, still owns the largest share of all.

"It's a total of more funds than we've ever previously raised, so it's really a huge thing for us,'' Rimac emphasised at the time, noting that they had five times more interested investors than they planned in terms of the raising of the money in this round, and as for the IPO, that is, public share offerings, they are thinking about it in a longer-term framework when the company becomes more predictable, so somewhere in the range of three to five years, according to Rimac.

This new investment is being used to continue the company's growth, increase production capacity and allow for additional employment. The capital raised will primarily be used for the further development of Rimac Technology in the field of large series production for global car manufacturers.

It should be known that Rimac Group is, namely, a holding company and consists of two companies; Bugatti Rimac, in which the Rimac Group has a majority share of 55 percent, while the other 45 percent is owned by Porsche, and Rimac Technology, which is 100 percent owned by the Rimac Group.

The company Rimac Technology is known as a technological partner of numerous global automotive manufacturers who choose it for the development and production of their high-performance battery systems, electric powertrains, electronic systems and user interface components. Mate Rimac then pointed out that the company has ambitious growth plans for the next two years, in addition to the issue of employees and the opening of new offices. They're present in four locations in Zagreb, and they also have offices in Split and Osijek, as well as elsewhere in Europe - in Germany, France and England.

The construction of the upcoming Rimac Campus in Sveta Nedelja is currently delayed, but considering the situation on the market, the deadlines set for it previously remain acceptable, and the plant should be ready in the next few months, with the administrative building and other facilities likely to be ready over the next year or so.

''It's a big investment and will be the largest industrial building in all of Croatia, spanning 100,000 square metres, and I believe that everything is progressing according to plan, and we're already planning the construction of Campus 2,'' Rimac reported back in June.

The Rimac Group employs a total of more than 1,500 people, with 500 of them working at Bugatti Rimac, 150 of them in France, while 1,000 people are employed at Rimac Technology. That's what the official figures from June of this year read. In the first half of this year, they employed 300 people, and by the end of the year they planned to employ another 700. As Mate Rimac wrote in a recent post on social media, they currently have a total of 2,000 employees.

Croatian inventor Mate Rimac otherwise started his business literally from his garage and back in 2009 he founded Rimac Automobili, continuing at this pace, doubling the number of employees, attracting strong investments, and breaking records and production despite the difficulties he faced. It's safe to say that the future should not be a problem for the talented and innovative Croatian inventor Mate Rimac.

For more, follow our business section.

December the 5th, 2022 - Moldova recently spent two hours without electricity owing to the horrendous actions of the Russians in Ukraine. Could Croatian companies easily solve such issues?

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jerko Zlatar writes, Croatia is very much focused on Ukraine's ongoing strife. We only need to look at the debate being had in the Croatian Parliament on the training of Ukrainians, the commendable attempts made by numerous sectors in this country to help with the integration of refugees, and the excellent work of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs at the Crimea Platform and political support for Ukraine. That said, the Republic of Croatia continues to employ a chronically lacking approach when it comes to proactivity with sending humanitarian aid abroad.

The current situation in Ukraine and recently in neighbouring Moldova illustrates the passivity and disorganisation of the process of sending aid, and the involvement of Croatian companies in that process turned out to be minimal and somewhat spontaneous. This has consequences for future exports.

Moldova is currently facing an energy crisis due to the fact that Gazprom has significantly reduced its gas supplies. To make matters worse, the lifeblood of Moldova's electricity supply from the EU is the 400 KV transmission line, which runs from Romania, through Ukraine and the separatist enclave of Transnistria.

Due to the overloading of the system in Odesa Oblast, as a result of Russian missile attacks on the Ukrainian electricity supply system, Moldova was left without electricity for two hours. According to Bloomberg last month, advisory and professional help was sent to by Lithuania and Poland, because the local Energocom employs only seventeen employees.

As for Croatian companies, which could quickly build a new transmission line with appropriate transformer stations, and whose institutes (including HEP) could help a lot in the procurement of electricity - there were no such moves to speak of. The agreement for the new transmission line was signed back in 2017, the value of the project stands at 270 million US dollars. It was also planned to be co-financed by the European Investment Bank with 80 million dollars.

Another example is France, which, in the wake of Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure last week, sent 100 generators with a power of 50 and 100 KVA. In total, 500 generators have been sent to Ukraine through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

However, among the sevetneen EU member states that have sent aid to Ukraine's electric power system, Croatia isn't among them - which produces almost everything needed in this situation, such as transformers, generators and transmission lines, and whose electricity industry has experience in staying up and running during a war.

In an interview with the Ukrainian channel Freedom TV, the head of the regional military-civilian administration of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hayday, said that the area primarily needs water purifiers and help with demining, areas in which Croatian companies also have something to offer.

Regarding demining, help from Croatian companies has already been offered, but in the Luhansk region, literally everything is lacking, from electricity to windows and building materials. Regarding private initiatives, DOK-ING has already demonstrated its innovative demining and firefighting robots to the President of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ruslan Stefancuk, during a visit to the meeting of the Crimea Platform in Zagreb.

Above all, it is necessary to create the most effective framework for bringing together businesses and the Croatian Government, which would be able to respond in a timely manner to crisis situations across the world, and which could become one of the main promoters of Croatian exports.

The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the Croatian Chamber of Commerce would have to be included in that body, as would other stakeholders like the Croatian Employers' Association, in order not to need to wait for EC decisions, but to react immediately and raise Croatia's reputation across the world and actively promote domestic production. 

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

December the 1st, 2022 - The Fortenova profit has reached impressive figures during the first nine months of 2022, with the growth of all business indicators being helped along by an excellent post-pandemic summer tourist season.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, on Wednesday this week, the Fortenova Group (Grupa) announced its detailed business results for the first nine months of this year, according to which it achieved a profit from continuous operations of 534 million kuna, against a loss of 384 million kuna in the same period last year.

The greatest positive impact on the growth of all business indicators was the aforementioned excellent tourist season which finally took place as normal following two years of coronavirus-induced instability and stress, there were also significant operational improvements which helped the situation and even ongoing inflation did its bit.

In the aforementioned nine-month period, Fortenova profit margins went up, seeing the company achieve a total consolidated income from continuous operations of 30.3 billion kuna, (4 billion euros), which represents a 38 percent increase compared to the same period back in 2021.

Without the impact of the integration of Mercator, the total income from Fortenova's continuous operations is 15 percent higher in comparison to the same period back in 2021. At the same time, the consolidated adjusted EBITDA of that same period compared to last year increased by 22 percent, to 2.1 billion kuna, or 275 million euros.

At the end of September this year, Fortenova profit was eye-watering, with almost two billion kuna resting in its accounts. At the same time, it continued with the process of debt relief.

For more on Croatian companies, entrepreneurs and innovation, keep up with our dedicated business section.

November the 29th, 2022 - The Croatian company ETF Airways, which was born during the pandemic, has become the first company registered in Croatia to be able to fly to the United States of America.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, following on from an excellent second summer flight season since its establishment, the Croatian charter carrier ETF Airways has become the very first Croatian airline to receive approval from the US Department of Transportation for flights to the USA, which will initially also open up the Caribbean market for them.

For next year, this company's main plan is additional growth, with an increase in the fleet from three to five Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which will depend on the dynamics of signing contracts for the next summer season, but things are looking very certain, Stjepan Bedic, the CEO of ETF Airways, revealed.

ETF Airways has transported 300 thousand passengers

As is already quite well known, ETF Airways was founded back during the global coronavirus pandemic at the beginning of last year by Croatian investors and bankers, investor Ratko Bajakic, economic analyst Velimir Sonje and banker Zdenko Adrovic, who is involved in the project through his own company - Korta. Among the founders are pilots Dragan Stefanovski and Marko Bankovic, a team of enthusiasts who have already collaborated with Bedic on several startup projects in the wider region, and spent a good part of their careers working for different foreign companies.

ETF Airways took to the skies last June and they aren't a liner company, they instead specialise in flights based on ACMI - aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance contracts, and this year they mostly flew on the Paris - Greece route, Bedic stated, adding that 2022's summer season was excellent - this company which has about 60 employees will end the year with a profit, but they aren't ready to reveal any of the more detailed figures yet. The potential for growth is significant, and it would be much greater if Croatia made it easier for staff to be employed, explained Bedic.

"In one single year, we flew between 5,500 and 6,000 hours at 150 airports, and transported around 300,000 passengers to different destinations. With two planes in Paris and one in Pristina, we also flew to destinations such as Svalbard, Greenland, and Reunion in the Indian Ocean. We operate on the EU's very competitive market, where there are hundreds of such companies, but there is also a lot of demand. Therefore, growth is planned, but currently the biggest challenge for us is the employment of pilots, because Croatia has a significantly higher cost of labour than some other EU menber states, with a much higher tax burden. Slovakia, Bulgaria, Ireland and other countries are therefore much more competitive than Croatia, which, with a different tax treatment for pilots, similar to seafarers, could have a much more developed aviation industry, i.e. more companies like us," explained Bedic, who believes that and the payment of benefited seniority is outdated and redundant.

Conquering the Caribbean market

ETF Airways is currently hiring cabin crew, and then it will look for more pilots, which will be additionally challenging because strong companies such as Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways are also in the process of hiring, and their impressive salaries cannot be compared to those offered by smaller companies such as ETF Airways. Although there are 60 employees employed directly by the company, that figure rises to 150 if external service providers in the entire ecosystem are added into the mix.

ETF Airways is entering the demanding American market through a joint venture company with a local French company, and their license to provide services across the pond in the USA will enable them to position themselves in the market of local flights to the Caribbean, as well as to popular American destinations such as Miami. There is a demand for their services there, and depending on the number of contracts signed during the winter for the next summer season, the acquisition of two new aircraft may also come to be. Namely, as Bedic pointed out, the situation on the market is still unstable in terms of last minute flight reservations, and ETF doesn't fly without signed contracts and deposits.

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

November the 29th, 2022 - The Croatian startup qSoft has worked alongside multiple other agencies and bodies and created a platform which works to uncover corruption, stating that the situation is far worse than we think.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, in cooperation with ICCrA - the Institute for Compliance, Criminal Compliance and Anti-Money Laundering, the WRAP (Whistleblower Reporting App) application was launched to achieve greater efficiency in the organisation of business, which serves both to detect and correct anomalies from the corruption zone, but also to improvement of work processes, regardless of the size of entities, type of ownership and industries.

How important WRAP now is for the overall Croatian economy and the domino effect in which whistleblowers massively report abuse and corruption was explained by ICCrA president Davor Iljkic, who is also the director of the Fraud Prevention Service at the Fund for the Reconstruction of the City of Zagreb, with previous experience of sixteen years with the Ministry of Interior (MUP) working on the detection of economic crime.

"Corruption is a vicious circle, and the situation is much worse than you think," claims Iljkic. This is confirmed by the results of the research of the International Association of Certified Fraud Investigators (ACFE) on the forms and types of fraud from 2014 and 2021, which show that the dominant forms are corruption and embezzlement of funds and fraud with financial statements, with the fact that 8 years ago 40% of detected cases were on the basis of a tip (TIP irregularity report), and in 2021, it stood at 42 percent.

"We need to strengthen the prevention and detection system, and WRAP can help with that," Iljkic believes.

The Croatian legislator also recognised that the system for the protection of whistleblowers needs to be strengthened. The new law on whistleblowers introduces the possibility that a professional, i.e. a third person from outside the organisation, can be appointed as a confidential person when establishing a channel for whistleblowers. Iljkic recommends this very solution in order to avoid a potential conflict of interest within an organisation itself in relation to the management body.

As far as WRAP is concerned, the application platform was born as an idea that integrates the aforementioned law, the EU ​​Directive 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and the Council on the protection of individuals reporting violations of EU law, and new obligations in the field of non-financial reporting (ESG) - environmental, social and personnel issues, as well as issues related to respect for human rights and the fight against corruption and bribery.

At that meeting, the Croatian startup qSoft, with headquarters in Zagreb and partner offices in Canada and Switzerland, decided to use these laws to help organisations become more efficient. Instead of just formally fulfilling obligations, a platform was created that contributes in various ways, including a modern version of business intelligence, to organisations with the aim of creating databases from which software analytics generate valuable information, on the basis of which business management can react in time.

"Organisations rely on a real wealth of data that they don't actually process themselves, and as it's dead capital for them, we see this as our greatest advantage. In its application, the platform hasn't been limited by industry, nor by the size of the entity in question," says Drazen Mrkonjic, the director of the Croatian startup qSoft. They started, he explains, from a process to which technology is adapted, and each entity can then use the solution within its own processes.

"It's important to obtain an effect in terms of meeting legal obligations, for which the information reported is needed. It's motivating for the employee that they can report irregularities without needing to suffer any consequences as a result, with guaranteed anonymity,'' states Mrkonjic.

Similar software services are being developed in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, meaning that this country and the Croatian startup qSoft is once again among the first EU member states in terms of the application being offered. The coronavirus crisis, the war in Ukraine and now inflationary pressures also pushed things along a bit, but so did Croatia's entry into the OECD.

"To provide an additional benefit for any company, we've also built risk management into the application, which allows each application to be evaluated from the aspect of how it affects the business itself,'' says Mrkonjic, who has specialised in this field through 24 long years of work experience in process management.

For Croatia's impending membership of the OECD and the recommendations of the organisation for the improvement of corporate governance bodies in the state sector, WRAP is, he says, just what the proverbial doctor ordered because the state is the first to be invited to tackle this. The state must show - by example - how such laws are applied in the state sector, not only technologically, but also procedurally.

Even the results published by the US Government across the pond easily prove that it is possible to achieve great results with the use of such advanced solutions. Just a decade ago, through the motivation of people to report irregularities to state authorities, they saved about 35 billion dollars by preventing corruption in the USA. What are known as neural networks are what gives the Croatian startup qSoft and its platform the edge.

"A neural network is a combination of a large number of methods used for connecting data and inferring what kind of data that is in order to obtain information and be able to manage it properly. The management of each organisation can then get better acquainted with which segments of the organisation has anomalies occur that must be reacted to and corrected. With the help of a neural network, numerous scams would be detected and prevented,'' explains Mrkonjic.

The system, he adds, is intended for administrations that run operational businesses. It was created as a combination of analytics and reports, a type of modern BI that, as a platform, receives data from various sources, while this is a platform that integrates within the system and creates data because employees feel safe and their reports create data that is categorised into information. The Kaizen methodology designed in Japan to manage efficiency within organisations in order to achieve continuous success was used, and it involves all employees so that every day, regardless of where they might be, they think about how they can improve their work and workplace. Through this platform, employees are motivated to report everything to the central system in an easy way.

"Through these reports, you get information about how your organisation functions. With this technology, we want to motivate people to say something and to create a pool of data, which will ultimately give a picture of how the organisation functions,'' says Mrkonjic.

For those organisations that want to connect with other data sources, the Croatian startup qSoft's platform also provides such opportunities. For example, at the moment of detection of an irregularity for a certain account, data can be pulled from Fina for that particular company and the owner, and the situation can be looked into. The platform also connects to other sources, and the more sources there are, the clearer and faster the picture of where problems arise can be obtained, and this includes the Register of Real Owners and the Tax Administration. It is an ideal tool for domestic anti-corruption organisations like DORH, which has access to all data, but it can be more effective through data processing in the detection of white-collar crime.

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

November 27, 2022 - Deloitte reported the results of their latest contest of the fastest-growing technology companies for the Central Europe, and 12 Croatian companies found themselves on their lists.

Companies from 9 countries found themselves on the prestigious list, assembled for the 23rd time by the consulting giant Deloitte. The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe lists 17 Polish companies, 13 from Czechia, 8 Croatian companies, 4 Slovakian, 3 Hungarian, 2 Bulgarian and one each from Lithuania, Romania and Serbia. The software companies dominate the list, with 33 companies being from that field, however, the first three positions were taken by companies from fintech and life science (FTMO, PayPo and Multiplex DX). X).

The eight Croatian companies on the list are: Aircash, placed fourth, with a growth of almost 6 percent, Devot Solutions placed 19th, Netgen 28th, Uprise 35th, CircuitMess 40th, Amplifico (Parklio) 41st, Async Labs 42nd, and Cinnamon 46th.

The additional category "Companies to Watch" includes: Firefly Studio, Identity Consortium, Brightdock, and Hivetech.

The special category "Impact stars", started last year, includes three Croatian companies: Axilis, Notch and Robotiq.ai.

Interestingly, six out of the eight Croatian companies on the Technology Fast 50 Central Europe are newcomers on the list. Async Labs were on the list last year as well, and CircuitMess was on the Companies to Watch list last year, and made their way to the main list this year.

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe is a Programme that ranks 50 fast-growing technology companies, public or private, based on percentage revenue growth. Winners are then selected by ranking their revenue growth over the four years from 2018 to 2021. In addition to the Technology Fast 50 ranking, Deloitte Central Europe ranks companies that show great potential but are too young to meet criterion for the main Fast 50 category.

November the 25th, 2022 - The Croatian Modepack company is set to cash in and increase its income on the mere change of the country's currency from the kuna to the euro as of January 2023.

As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, with an investment of 63 million kuna in their new plant in Velika Gorica near Zagreb, the Croatian Modepack company has recently rounded off its strategic efforts to double its capacity conceived in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, when the demand for their range of courier and security packaging on the global market exploded.

As explained by Jure Siric, director and owner of the Croatian Modepack company, the projections were that the investment, which was supported by the European Union (EU) from its funds in the amount of 7.5 million kuna, would amount to 50 million kuna. However, the drastic increase in the prices of raw materials and goods, as well as rising labour force costs, raised the total investment amount by about 15 percent.

"Given the fact that it's a large space, a building of 5,500 square metres and a plot of land spanning 32,000 square metres, further expansion is also possible. 2/3 of the total investment has already been invested in equipping production. This enabled us to increase our production capacity by approximately 100%, which in practice would mean 300 million pieces produced per year. Further planned investments, such as that intended for solar panels, will make us completely self-sufficient in terms of electricity, which is the only energy we use in the production process," Siric revealed.

Although the foreign market is their main focus, this yea,  suddenly there was a great demand for their products right here in Croatia as well. The reason is the introduction of the euro, that is, the withdrawal of kuna from circulation as the nation's currency.

"We knew that this represented a big opportunity for us, that there would be a lot of work, but what happened in the last weeks was far beyond that. We prepared well and consulted all potential clients. We estimated that we could achieve a turnover of around one million euros on this. Interest was weak until October, when everything exploded and everyone needed our safe packaging for money transfers - banks, Fina, shops, etc. We're very flexible and, thanks to this new facility in Velika Gorica, we've started with the production of this assortment in three shifts. Our current estimates are that our planned turnover on packaging for the collection of kuna and the distribution of euros across Croatia will increase from one million to at least two million euros," explained Siric.

The Croatian Modepack company has otherwise recorded double-digit growth since its very foundation, and that trend has only continued this year, when they expect about 75 million kuna in revenue, which is about 30 percent more than the 53 million kuna they earned last year. Their plans for the next three years are even more ambitious, by 2025, the plan is to achieve 150 million kuna (20 million euros) in revenue.

The opening ceremony of their new plant, where eight production lines will be installed for the time being, was an opportunity for the Croatian Modepack company to present its modernised logo adapted to the global market, from which they generate more than 90 percent of their revenue.

"This seemed like an excellent timing for this move. Modepack always strives to be up to date even now, after six years, and we wanted to modernise everything together. Through this process, we were guided by the backbone of our business: the product - people - production - the planet. The goal we set when creating a new brand was to strengthen our position on the market through clear and consistent communication. Amazon, H&M, Vans, Adidas, DHL, DPD, Loomis, numerous European financial institutions as well as the Antwerp Diamond Exchange (AWDC) are just some of the many users of the company's courier and security packaging.

Although we've only been present on the market for six years, Modepack is already one of the global leaders in the production of high-quality packaging for the logistic transport of goods, with an emphasis placed on e-commerce and courier deliveries, as well as security packaging for money and valuables. We export to 32 world markets,'' Siric explained, adding that Modepack was created based on the assessment that e-commerce would become a reality very soon, and this happened much earlier than expected. This was especially pronounced during the coronavirus pandemic, when e-commerce grew at triple-digit rates.

"I'm not a complete stranger within this industry because I come from the Weltplast family company, which has been involved in packaging and recycling since back in 1983, and since 2010, I've been in charge of sales for the EU market. However, it's a large company that generally deals with packaging and all of the raw materials for it, and my desire was to step into something new and a bit different. I don't think I made a mistake in doing so,'' said Siric, whose company occupies an increasingly large part of the global market, and currently their main focus is Scandinavia and France, where they were present at a large specialised fair this week.

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

November the 24th, 2022 - The remarkable Croatian company Include, at the helm of which is young entrepreneur Ivan Mrvos, is now eyeing the markets of Germany and Italy with its innovative Smart City solutions.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, after three years of development, the Croatian company Include has finally launched brand new smart solutions for cities and municipalities on the market. This is how the installation of the redesigned version of the wildly popular Steora smart bench and two completely new products - Aerys - an air quality monitoring station and Terra - a waste container, began.

"For a long time now, the long-term goal has been to expand our Smart City sales portfolio with solutions that solve some of the key challenges that today's communities face - public property management, micromobility, air quality and waste management," explained Ivan Mrvos, the founder and CEO of the Croatian company Include.

Last year, Include's redesigned smart benches were put on the market, which are now equipped with micromobility features and can recognise and charge all types of e-mobiles and e-bikes.

Aerys, Include's first air quality monitoring station, was installed back in March, and to date more than 20 of them have been installed across Croatia, Montenegro and Italy.

"At the beginning of next year, we expect orders from other markets where we're already present with our Steora benches," said Mrvos.

This month, the first five Terra waste containers with compression systems installed, and which can hold five times more waste than a standard container of the same size, were installed. In addition, operators can remotely monitor its filling levels and plan rubbish collection routes accordingly. As early as next month, as Mrvos announces, an additional four such containers should be installed. In addition, they developed the Solos software solution, an IoT platform that connects and facilitates the management of smart solutions.

As far as expansion is concerned, the market is the whole world, but the primary focus of the Croatian company Include will be right here in Europe, that is, the countries where they generally achieve the best results with their benches - Italy and Germany.

"We're talking about very large markets where existing competitors generate tens of millions of euros in revenue annually. Now we have a big job ahead of us to successfully promote and place our new solutions on different markets,'' stated the director of the company, which has received a massive 3.4 million euros in investments since its foundation back in 2015. The last investment, one from the beginning of this year which amounted to 400 thousand euros, helped expand Include's already enviable portfolio, which was anything but a simple task.

This company, which generates 90 percent of its revenue on foreign markets, explains that the biggest challenge was coronavirus restrictions and the lack of chips on the market.

"The chips with which we initially designed our modules and products became completely unavailable and we had to redesign certain components almost from scratch with other chips that were more available, and even then it was questionable whether these new chips would be available on the market in the long term. All this put an additional financial burden on us because we had to make additional unplanned supplies, and the supply chain itself of almost all the materials needed for work became chaotic and unavailable for work at one point," Mrvos recalled.

Fortunately, that situation is now firmly behind them.

As far as financing is concerned, Mrvos stated that they are actively working on new opportunities and that they will probably have some news on this matter in the next year. In the years to come, their vision, Mrvos pointed out, is to enable the implementation of "smartness" across all small towns and municipalities.

"We saw that smaller cities and municipalities very often don't participate in Smart City projects because integrators often focus on large cities as potentially large clients. In addition, cloud platforms through which such products are controlled are often adapted to larger environments and require smaller ones to have infrastructure in the form of employees or IT equipment with which to manage these products.

The long-term vision we have is that all cities, regardless of their size and infrastructure, can participate as Smart Cities and that through our platform they can control their smart products without significant investment in IT infrastructure or new employment,'' they explained from the Croatian company Include.

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