August the 25th, 2022 - Croatia's Djuro Djakovic company has contracted a significant 190 million kuna job for a well known company - GATX Rail Europe, despite undergoing a transformation of sorts of its own.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, while waiting for the ownership transformation to be completed, Croatia's Djuro Djakovic still successfully manages to contract new jobs. The company has just contracted the construction of new Shimmns freight cars for GATX Rail Europe, the value of which stands at almost 190 million in total.

The production and delivery of wagons is planned for the first half of next year, and the Slavonski Brod-based group has pointed out that with this project, Djuro Djakovic group has confirmed its strategic orientation towards the development and production of wagons for special purpose and performance, with the use of new generation production equipment with which the company is rounding off its development and production processes in the meantime.

According to the Djuro Djakovic group's latest financial report for the first half of this year, the value of the previously contracted production of Shimmns freight wagons amounted to almost 150 million kuna, and the value of the Uacns wagons contracted with a Swiss client stood at approximately 94 million kuna. Their capacities have been filled for this year and the company is already preparing itself for new construction contracted for next year.

In addition to the transport segment, the Djuro Djakovic group has contracted jobs in the defense, energy and industry segments, and the total value of all jobs, before the latest contract, was a very impressive 310 million kuna in total.

From the communication heard from the company undergoing a transformation so far, the production of wagons will be a priority in the further development of this well known industrialist from Slavonski Brod with the new majority owner, the company DD Acquisition, owned by Czech investors Rene Matera and Jaroslav Strnad, who will soon recapitalise the company.

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

August the 2nd, 2022 - The Croatian AD Plastik company has contracted a job worth a massive 31.2 million euros with the French-Italian enterprise Stellantis, and it isn't the first time it has succeeded in doing so.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian AD Plastik revealed last week that it has contracted new jobs for the European market worth a huge 31.2 million euros in total.

"The AD Plastik Grupa (Group) has contracted new business with the buyer Stellantis for the European market, with expected revenues of 31.2 million euros and an expected duration of the project of seven years," reads the statement according to a short announcement on the Zagreb Stock Exchange.

This is already the third significant deal the Croatian AD Plastik company has managed to contract with the French-Italian automotive group during this year alone. It's worth noting that back in March this year, the Croatian AD Plastik company reported on a deal contracted with Stellantis worth 71.5 million euros, and at the end of June, it did the same with a contract worth an even higher 85.9 million euros.

On Wednesday last week, the Croatian AD Plastik Grupa reported on its business results for the first half of this year, in which a net loss of 59.46 million kuna was recorded. This loss includes value adjustments in the amount of 75 million kuna made on the basis of an assessment of the recoverability of the assets of the Russian companies of the group, which is of course something which required an overhaul following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and all of the sanctions placed on the country as a result.

The Group's operating income amounted to 433.09 million kuna, which is 30.4 percent less, and the normalised EBITDA of 18.58 million kuna is a significant 77.5 percent lower.

In the report from AD Plastik Grupa, they stated that the half-year results of the group's operations were largely characterised by geopolitical events and the consequences of the semiconductor shortage crisis on the market.

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

August the 2nd, 2022 - The very first positive monthly financial result for the enfeebled national carrier Croatia Airlines was recorded back during the month of June this year.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the operational loss of the Croatian national carrier Croatia Airlines (CA) during the first half of this year stands at an absolutely enormous 170.3 million kuna, and the net loss is 164.1 million kuna, despite the gradual recovery of demand and mainly due to the increase in fuel prices, Croatia Airlines announced recently.

They pointed out from Croatia Airlines that the company's very first positive monthly financial result since the beginning of the global crisis caused by the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic was achieved back in June this year.

In the period from January to June 2022, a total of 10,054 flights were successfully carried out by Croatia Airlines, which is 85 percent more compared to the same period last year.

558,146 passengers were transported, equal to 2.7 percent more in comparison to the same period back in 2021, but still 42 percent less compared to 960,620 passengers transported in the same period during the pre-pandemic, record year of 2019.

400,887 passengers were transported in international regular traffic, almost three times more than in the same period last year, while 146,428 passengers were transported in domestic regular traffic, twice as many as back during the first half of 2021.

When it comes to charter traffic, 10,831 passengers were transported, which is 77 percent more compared to the same period back in 2021. Cargo transportation was 14 percent higher, and cabins were filled by 56.2 percent, 10.9 percentage points more than back during the first six months of 2021.

The flight structure was adapted to traffic needs and circumstances, and the emphasis was primarily placed on the use of the Q400 fleet in addition to increasing the use of the Airbus fleet.

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

July the 30th, 2022 - The massive Croatian tourism company Valamar Riviera has published the results it has acheived during the first six months of this year, and they're in stark contrast to the situation just one year ago, never mind two.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, in the first half of 2022, the Croatian tourism company Valamar Riviera achieved an impressive 2.1 million overnight stays with business revenues of 677.5 million kuna, which is comparable to the volume of business in the first six months of the pre-crisis, record year of 2019.

The growth of business income in the first half of 2022 is mostly the result of the growth of average prices, which are roughly 8 percent higher when compared to how much they were back in 2019. The best results were recorded in the premium segment, especially in the part of campsites and car destinations.

However, increased costs, primarily of electricity, labour and food products had a significant impact on profitability overall. The operating profit for the first six months stands at 58 million kuna less than in 2019, which is entirely the result of increased electricity costs of 37 million kuna and labour costs of 22 million kuna.

With the aim of increasing the attractiveness of key professions in tourism and providing the best working conditions in the sector, the Croatian tourist company Valamar launched the ''First for a reason/Prvi s razlogom'' campaign this year. For this year, a total of 15 million euros have been set aside for salary increases and various reward programmes. This year, Valamar is once again among the TOP 10 most desirable Croatian employers of all, and is still the best employer in the tourism sector.

The investment cycle in hotels, summer resorts and campsites managed by the Croatian tourism company Valamar for 2022 amounted to a massive 530 million kuna. Dalmacija [PLACESHOTEL] by Valamar in Makarska, the newly built Valamar Amicor Green Resort in Stari Grad on the island of Hvar and Corinthia Baska Sunny hotel by Valamar on the island of Krk were all successfully opened. This season's investments include new facilities at Istra Premium Camping Resort and the Lanterna Premium Camping Resort in Porec, as well as the construction of a beach near the Valamar Padova Hotel on the island of Rab. The new Valamar House for housing seasonal employees down in Dubrovnik was also opened.

The Croatian tourism company Valamar has also expanded its portfolio in nearby Austria with the acquisition of the Kesselspitze 5* Hotel, which has become the third hotel under Valamar's management in Obertauern, Austria. As the first Valamar Collection hotel in Austria, it will open in the winter season of 2022/2023.

Valamar Riviera is otherwise the very first tourism company in Croatia to have integrated sustainable development into its business and development management and published a new sustainability strategy and set of ESG goals until the year 2025. The strategy includes 12 key goals in the field of environment (E), society (S) and management (G) that Valamar plans to achieve through 6 strategic initiatives until the aforementioned year.

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

July the 29th, 2022 - The brand new Serengeti Split office has opened its doors and has been hiring local IT experts, a move which will hopefully further contribute to people remaining in Croatia and people from Dalmatia becoming employed in something other than tourism.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, after having opened offices in Zagreb, Bjelovar, Varaždin and neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as development centres over in Kenya and Serbia, the new Serengeti Split office has opened, where it sees great potential for further establishing the IT profession, developing innovative projects and attracting young experts from across the region; Cooperation with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Shipbuilding in Split is also planned through internships and scholarships.

Serengeti, one of the fastest growing Croatian software development companies, will start working at their new location on August the 1st, 2022, in their brand new office on the Riva in the very heart of the City of Split. Since its foundation back in 2007, Serengeti has grown organically in terms of revenue, number of employees and level of expertise, and is now one of the fastest growing Croatian IT companies for software development, with an average annual revenue growth rate of around 35%.

Serengeti's expansion further down towards the south of Croatia is motivated by the increasing volume of work in general, as well as work on projects for the global market, and it has all been planned since the beginning of this year. Serengeti recognised Split as one of the most promising Croatian cities with great potential for even stronger technological development. In addition, Serengeti wishes to motivate local young experts, software engineers, to stay here in Croatia. There are already seven developers working within the Split team, and by the end of the year they will employ a minimum of eight more people. Two and a half million kuna is planned for the salaries of these 15 employees this year alone.

As far as the further growth of the number of employees is concerned, cooperation with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Shipbuilding in Split is also planned in the form of professional internships, scholarships and employment of interns, as mentioned previously.

"We already have seven employees working in Split and they fit perfectly into our way of working. Since Split and the region where it is located are strong in terms of engineering personnel and there are excellent technical faculties there, we believe that we'll be able to significantly expand our engineering team and offer people work on large international projects. The new Serengeti Split office is an important pillar in our future development plans, which largely depends on the ability to attract and retain quality engineering staff," says Goran Kalanj, president of the board and founder of Serengeti.

Serengeti's developers in Split are currently working on the development of a tourist application (app) for one of the leading Croatian tourism companies, and in cooperation with colleagues from other offices, they'll also work on projects for other markets. With an already established position within the European Union (EU), Serengeti has been present on the American, Scandinavian and Israeli markets since last year, which is why this company is constantly growing in terms of the number of employees.

Thanks to challenging projects, expertise and experience from both domestic and global markets, investment in development and the family atmosphere that reigns in all Serengeti offices, the company is recognised as a desirable employer and will have more than 200 satisfied employees at all of its current locations by the end of the year.

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

July the 20th, 2022 - The impressive Croatian company Infobip has entered yet another new market as part of another brave business move, this time in Israel.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the Croatian company Infobip, which is now multinational has included Israel as a new destination in which they'll operate and employ new people, and now their global business network has more than 3,500 employees worldwide.

As was announced recently by the Croatian company Infobip itself, this cloud communication platform is only continuing with its ongoing and very enviable global growth.

The start of operations in Israel was announced by Infobip to the leading customer experience experts who gathered in the city of Tel Aviv to discuss the upcoming trends and challenges in the sector, and with this move, it is going to continue its strategy of having a truly global presence - after expanding into the Estonian market back in May, it is now actively recruiting in Israel as well.

Israel is one of the current technological leaders of the world, with more than 3,000 high-tech companies headquartered in the country. As many as 71 of them are listed on NASDAQ, which puts Israel in second place in terms of the number of companies on that American stock exchange, after the USA itself.

In Israel, the Croatian company Infobip will offer its users access to the market-leading CPaaS platform, enabling them to expand their communications across multiple channels and connect more strongly with their customers on a global scale.

"Israel is an important strategic market for Infobip thanks to it having the world's leading startup ecosystem, which totals more than 6,000 startups and about 80 unicorns. In our expansion into this new market, the support of the Israeli ambassador Ilan Mor, to whom we thank for his great help, was extremely important.

Numerous Israeli SaaS and cybersecurity platforms are exceeding expectations and are looking for a communication partner with a global perspective. With a reach in more than 200 countries around the world, our platform is the market leader and can help new and existing clients from Israel to strengthen ties with their own customers around the world," said Ivan Ostojic, a member of Infobip's Business Development Board. Growing companies based in Israel can now join Infobip's much talked about Startup Tribe programme, as well.

This is a very unusual programme that aims to bring together the most innovative startups from across the world and give them access to the tools needed to interact with their various clients on multiple communication channels.

“Through our Startup Tribe programme and our broad portfolio of scalable capabilities, we can support and partner with Israeli companies regardless of their stage of development. We're looking forward to being part of their journey and helping them communicate with their clients on a global level," added Ostojic.

Investments in the Israeli technology sector are continuously growing, which has resulted in a share of employees in high-tech companies of as much as 10 percent. Israel will be one of more than 70 countries in which the Croatian company Infobip is present, and where it will offer its leading CPaaS solutions.

Last week, Infobip announced that it had taken over the business technology portal Netokracija. The goal of this takeover, they explained, was to further strengthen the programming community through the creation of additional content designed for IT specialists.

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

July the 4th, 2022 - The remarkable Vodnjan company Infobip, otherwise Croatia's very first unicorn, is now taking over the Netokracija magazine in yet another step forward for its business.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, Infobip, the first Croatian unicorn, is taking over the business and technology magazine Netokracija, with which it has been cooperating for a long time, with the aim of strengthening the developer community and providing it with content intended for it, as well as further raising the value of IT in society as a whole.

Netokracija's team, headed by founder Ivan Brezak Brkan, will become part of the Vodnjan company Infobip's developer experience department led by Ivan Burazin.

It's worth looking at just how far Infobip has come, as it has well and truly broken the stereotypes placed on the majority of Croatian companies. Last year, Infobip took over Shift, the largest regional developer conference of which Netokracija has been a partner since the very beginning.

The plan is for Netokracija, as part of the wider Infobip Group, to continue operating through independent editorial with the potential to expand to other markets to continue positioning itself as a relevant media portal in the Republic of Croatia and in neighbouring Serbia with a stronger focus placed on the startup and developer scene.

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

July the 6th, 2022 - The Golden Key awards (Croatian: Zlatni kljuc) are awarded to the best Croatian exporters each year, and this year, with continued challenges owing to the war in Ukraine which broke out following Russian invasion back in February this year, things continue to be demanding for businesses.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Golden Key awards for the best of Croatia's largest exporters went to Koncar - Distribution and special transformers, the best of the medium Croatian exporters is Dok-Ing, and the Q agency has been declared the best of the small and micro Croatian exporters for this year.

The president of the Croatian Exporters (HIZ) pointed out that these strange times in which business is being conducted are extremely challenging and complicated due to the coronavirus pandemic and Russian aggression.

"The world's gross export back in 2021, if we're looking solely at goods, fell, but services and the total in that sense actually increased. Exports from Croatia have increased, which means that we're in a good position compared to the rest of the world. The shortfalls that occurred here for the Croatian economy were then offset by a successful tourist season.

The export of goods and services to the EU is traditionally in the negative, and with CEFTA in the plus, whether that refers to goods or services. For years, the structure of our largest trade partners has been the same, consisting of five countries including Italy, Germany and Slovenia," said Darinko Bago. He repeated that Croatian exporters employ the majority of employees and generate the largest share of the country's GDP, and according to the calculations of the Financial Agency (Fina), Croatian exporters contribute on average to the budget and GDP by as much as 40 percent more than other companies.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic also spoke about the challenges currently being faced by the Croatian and European economy, and he emphasised that we are living in a time of several parallel crises, the likes of which have not been seen for decades. The unprecedented coronavirus pandemic halted society as a whole, caused severe damage to the global economy and reduced the global GDP by double-digit values, and now we have a war on European soil.

"The second crisis is the Russian aggression against Ukraine, which disrupted the energy market and consequently led to inflationary trends throughout Europe and the world. The third crisis is the climate crisis, which, connected with the events in Ukraine, leads to a global food crisis. Therefore, he warned, we all have to sit down together and see how to deal with these parallel crises," Plenkovic pointed out as Croatian exporters were rewarded for their efforts.

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

July the 4th, 2022 - Croatia is full of impressive castles and palaces from various periods throughout its turbulent history and over many changes of state and governing body. The Croatian Erdody Castle has sadly been in a state of neglect since the 1980s, but it seems all that is about to change for the better.

The Croatian Erdody Castle is located in Kerestinec and is the oldest remaining building in all of Jastrebarsko, which isn't too far from the City of Zagreb. It was initially constructed by the Erdody family from which it draws its name. This two story structure which has sadly been left to rot to an extent is a first category monument with its Renaissance fortified elements still impressive to this day, despite its general state. 

Way back in the year 1565, a man who was working very hard on the construction of the structure which was then surrounded by a moat, Petar II Erdody, was awarded the noble title of count. By the time 1575 rolled around, the castle had been quite significantly expanded and given a new lease of life, with works on it continuing on and off until the late 16th century.

It was rebuilt once again periodically during the 18th and 19th centuries, and fully refurnished in the early 20th century. It has since been left to the often cruel hands of time and the elements, and is absolutely due a revamp before it is lost entirely.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Mladen Miletic writes, a contract was signed recently in Jastrebarsko between the mayor, Zvonimir Novosel, and the INg-GRAD company, which will enable the start of works on the restoration of the neglected Croatian Erdody Castle.

The deadline for the execution of the works is 480 calendar days from the date of the introduction of the contractor to the work, and the total value of the works stands at a massive 108,194,041.60 kuna excluding VAT.

Due to market disruptions caused by the global coronavirus pandemic and then by the war in Ukraine, that sum exceeds the total value of the castle renovation and revitalisation project, which in accordance with the Grant Agreement, amounts to 73,639,686.93 kuna, of which 49,503,626.59 kuna is being co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, while the amount of 24,136,060, 34 kuna bas been provided by Jastrebarsko itself.

It's worth noting that despite constant interventions throughout time, as touched on above, the Croatian Erdody Castle has been in a state of disrepair since the late 1980s.

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

ZAGREB, 1 July 2022 - Wood veneer manufacturer Deospan Mato Furnir is the recipient of the Financial Agency's (Fina) Golden Balance Award as the most successful Croatian company overall based on financial ratings for 2021.

At a ceremony on Thursday evening, Fina presented 19 awards in total: 11 Golden Balance awards to the best companies in individual sectors, two honours for excellence in business continuity and six Golden Balance awards in special categories.

Fina analyzed 144,259 businesses and selected 3,978 of them for the award competition.

The Golden Balance Award is awarded based on rankings calculated from 11 financial indicators in five categories – profitability, liquidity, debt, business activities, and economic efficiency. The overall winner has the highest credit rating score based on recognized international standards, namely the Basel III Guidelines and International Financial Reporting Standard 9.

Decospan Mato Furnir, based in Oprisavci in eastern Slavonski Brod-Posavina County, was also rated as the best manufacturing company.

Addressing the ceremony, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that the government was now focusing on reforms and measures to ensure that every six months Croatia received a cheque from the EU, like the one it received two days ago, in the amount of €700 million. He added that they would pursue another 25 benchmarks so that this could happen in December as well.

Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said that Croatian companies had been facing challenges for several years, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the earthquakes, and now inflationary pressures, adding that increased energy prices put continued pressure on businesses.

For more, check out our business section.