When Marin Pucar took over Podravka back in February last year, he comically stated, "Once you go Podravka, you're always Podravka!"

As Marina Sunjerga/VL/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 11th of November, 2018, Pucar experienced returning to the large domestic food company, at which he worked for twelve years, very emotionally. Pucar also has many goals and plans set up for the huge company to aim for.

Pucar's big plans for Podravka were soon realised because the Koprivnica-based food company achieved net operating profits of a massive 186 million kuna during the first nine months of 2018, which is the best result and the highest operating profit in Podravka's long history. These sparkling financial results saw employee salaries increase by 1000 kuna and the company get closer to reaching its goal of being a food business consolidator in Croatia, these praiseworthy achievements brought Pucar to his very well-deserved nomination for businessman of the year for 2018.

It is also important to point out his engagement in resolving the crisis in Agrokor from his position as the president of the association of Agrokor's suppliers, which acted uniquely to protect the interests of domestic companies.

''Podravka is a very good company'', said Pucar when he came to the head of the company, but added that it can and should be better because Podravka is much more than just its numerous brands and products.

In just a year and a half of his mandate, Marin Pucar has achieved excellent results with his team. He announced Vegeta's strong development, involving a wide range of products. In his vision and strategy, Vegeta will be branded completely with the culinary field, and all kinds of dishes.

''That's the aim, if we succeed, and we believe that we will,'' Pucar said in an interview for Večernji list.

''We'll secure Vegeta for another hundred years, and add new, additional value for Podravka,'' added Pucar.

Among the priorities, Pucar also emphasised the improvement of the rights and the material conditions of employees as the company's most valuable resource. ''Without satisfied workers, there can be no successful company,'' Pucar said. Namely, The salaries of the lowest paid employees in Podravka will increase by about 1000 kuna a month, which is one of the moves other entrepreneurs must follow if they truly want to retain quality workers.

The lowest wage in Podravka now amounts to 4,000 kuna per month. Through a collective contract, Podravka's employees have been granted a jubilee reward, and the company will pay them 1000 kuna per year for voluntary pension savings, which will eventually provide them with larger pensions when they retire. One of the goals that Pucar has set in front of him is, as stated, to position Podravka as a consolidator for the food industry, as well as the generator of the development of domestic agricultural production.

Accordingly, the company is expanding its cooperation with subcontractors and domestic OPGs to ensure that by the year 2022, its global brands such as Vegeta are secure. To achieve this goal requires a two to three year investment cycle, but the capacities needed by Podravka are sufficient to trigger a serious segment of Croatian agriculture. Part of the financing of these investments was secured by the company from EU funds.

Podravka itself has an impressive investment potential of around 200 million euro, so new acquisitions could realistically be expected. The company's presence on numerous traditional markets such as that of Poland, Hungary, and Russia, is set to increase. Pucar also played an important role in the rehabilitation of the formerly ailing Agrokor Group from the position of the president of the Association of Agrokor's suppliers.

The challenge was to protect and preserve the rights and interests of Agrokor's suppliers, while at the same time not compromise the position of Agrokor, and Agrokor's giant Konzum as the largest domestic retail chain. Unlike various other companies, Podravka didn't stop its deliveries to the then suffering Konzum, thereby confirming its responsibility for the continuation of Konzum's operations and the preservation of jobs.

The successful running of this extremely complex process resulted in the stabilisation of Agrokor's operations, a large part of the Croatian economy, and the preservation of Agrokor's supplier stability.

Otherwise, Pucar has spent most of his career in the food industry. He started his professional career at Gavrilović back in 2001, and one year later, he was in Podravka's meat industry, Danica, where he was the director of sales, marketing and development. He quickly moved to Podravka's high position of director for the Croatian market, and from 2008 to 2012, he was a member of the management of the company.

After five years with Podravka, he went to Zvečevo, which he led before returning as Podravka's main man.

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Click here for the original article by Marina Sunjerga/VL on Poslovni Dnevnik

One Croatian company receives the nod of approval and an enviable cash injection from some of Croatia's most prominent business angels who believe in their potential for enormous success.

As Lucija Spiljak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 10th of November, 2018, since the very launch of the game, more than 1,600 copies have been sold, and their income, as they state from this Croatian company, is enough to cover salaries, programs and servers. Given that the game is still at an early stage, they say they didn't actually expect all that much from it initially.

Eleven members of the Croatian Business Angels Network - CRANE, provided the Jastrebarsko gaming studio Hyperion with the largest investment by number of members so far. They decided to invest in the launch of a young, three-member team who independently released a survival computer game called Journey of Life just a few months ago. During that period, the game has earned more than 250,000 kuna in revenue.

The founder of the startup is 22-year-old Adriano Žeželić, Thomas Lesniowski from Germany, and Siddhante Nangla from India, and the project was presented at the CRANE Startup, which held at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management on Wednesday. Investors have estimated the value of this Croatian company to be 500,000 euro, and the business angels who have invested will receive somewhat less than 20 percent of the newly established company, which has its seat in London.

CRANE President Davorin Štetner was first invested in the startup, followed by Hrvoje Prpić, then Aljoša Domijan, Zoran Miliš, Dennis Rukavina, Zvonimir Orešar, Denis Matijević, and Nikola Serdar.

Žeželic contacted President Davorin Štetner on the suggestion of a friend who claimed he left a positive impression on him, and after that, the young author of the game from Jastrebarsko, who is an electrical technician by profession, had the chance to present the project to others.

"I like to see when somebody is able to launch such a demanding thing without getting any help, so I think that now, with the help of the money and the advice from experienced business angels, Adriano will succeed in his ambitious plans," said Štetner.

Hrvoje Prpić, the lead investor, spoke with Roman Ribarić from Croteam on Journey of Life's potential and CRANE's decision to investigate the market before actually investing anything. From the previously released game, Croteam raised as much as 16 million euro, Prpić concluded that Hyperion's Journey of Life study could also bring great success. Prpić said that the long-term investment aim of the business angels is to encourage Hyperion to continue to release games in order to become even more significant.

"As a passionate gamer who has always been in love with computers, I started planning the 2016 project, and I started with its actual realisation in October 2017. That year, I decided to realise my dream and founded the Hyperion Studio and released the game at the beginning of May," Žeželić warmly recalled.

"We got some great support from players around the world that helped us keep the project going. We communicate daily with people who join our group and share new things with them. The support of experienced business people is of great importance and I'm looking forward to working with CRANE because I believe that with some business advice, money, and assistance in other segments, Hyperion Studio can become an international name in the gaming industry,'' stated the Croatian company's young founder.

The game is currently available only for personal computers, but mobile versions are being discussed and planned, and they will hopefully be on the market during the second half of next year.

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Click here for the original article by Lucija Spiljak for Poslovni Dnevnik

Ivica Todorić has returned to Croatia after more than a year in London, having landed on the territory of a country in which he is no longer the owner of the largest regional company. Exactly one year after handing himself in in the British capital, living under the watchful eye of the Metropolitan police and after an agonisingly long court battle, Agrokor's former untouchable main man returned to his homeland utterly powerless. A far cry from the not so distant reality Todorić once enjoyed, having once owned his own private island, Smokvica.

As Jutarnji/Vanja Nezirovic writes on the 9th of November, 2018, unlike back on the 10th of April 2017, when he signed Lex Agrokor, which activated the law to allow the Croatian Government to step in and rescue Agrokor, and unlike in the autumn of the same year when he temporarily "emigrated" to London, Agrokor's largest single owner is now Russia's Sberbank with a 39.2 percent stake. The settlement was a long and painfully complex process, however, in order to execute such a settlement, creditors, primarily financial lenders, had to write off a large part of their claims, around 60 percent.

Namely, the exact amount and percentage of the final write-off of the creditor's claims will be known at the time when Agrokor is sold. To recall, on April the 10th, 2017, Agrokor had 7.7 billion euro in debt, of which about 1.5 billion euro was debt within the group, which means that the debt to third parties actually amounted to about 6.2 billion euro.

If we know that the framework calculations of Agrokor's value are projected at about 2.3 billion euro, this would mean that the creditors, primarily financially (based on this nominal projection), were forced to give up an enormous total of about 4 billion euro. This was the price of the survival of Agrokor, which for now, following these write-offs, has a debt of 1.06 billion euro in so-called roll up loans.

Agrokor's medium and large suppliers have so far averaged 60 percent of their claims for goods and services, were paid 500 million euro in cach for old debts, with 46 percent of them having a return of between 80 and 100 percent. When the rest of the debt is paid out over four years, and when part of Agrokor's property is converted, their return will amount to about 80 percent. The bonds' return rate ranges between 40 percent and 80 percent, while the largest number of domestic and foreign financial institutions and other creditors will have an average return on demand of up to 20 percent.

At the time of signing Lex Agrokor, Todorić's Agrokor Group was blocked in the amount of 3 billion kuna, and it was naturally expected that this dire situation could lead to Croatia into a short-term recession. The possibility of Agrokor's bankcruptcy could have, according to CNB/HNB (Croatian National Bank) projections, lead to several smaller banks entering into a very dangerous situation indeed, yet while the banking system luckily remained stable, the losses bigger banks suffered were felt almost immediately.

Even with the implementation of a specially regulated bankruptcy proceeding through Lex Agrokor, several contract suppliers ended up in bankruptcy or having to undertake pre-bankruptcy proceedings, some stabilised the recapitalisation of third parties, some are still awaiting ownership and business restructuring, but a stronger economic and social shock was thankfully avoided.

Today, Agrokor's debt has been reduced to levels that should be viable, things are generally much more stable and the company is expected to return to normal function in 2019. The results of companies like Jamnica and Ledo, are once again very good, Konzum seems to be more than just recovering, but some other companies from within the large Agrokor umbrella, like Velpro and Konzum BiH (Bosnia and Herzegovina) are still very vulnerable.

It's also clear that agricultural companies such as Vupik will need some more time to recover properly, but the overall picture of the company today is much more healthy than it was a year ago, thanks to the current extraordinary commissioner, Fabris Peruško.

That means that the Croatian economy, a much more than significant part of which is made up by Agrokor, has gone from being under grave threat, to being more stable, more safe, and more competitive.

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Click here for the original article by Vanja Nezirovic for Jutarnji List

One Croatian company which pays its employees wages of over 1,000 euros per month has had an offer to move its business operations to Ireland. The company currently employs 100 people in Croatia and 50 people from outside Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 9th of November, 2018, the managing director of the Rijeka-based Alarm automatika company, Boris Popović, warned about the problems of entrepreneurs with employment and the retention of experts in domestic companies from the ICT sector in Osijek last week.

He said that in his Croatian company, which employs engineering teams, he always fears the departure of experts who are getting more profitable business deals. However, as Glas Slavonije reports, tempting offers are not only received by employees, but also by entrepreneurs.

Alarm automatika deals with delivery solutions in multiple segments of technical protection, ie security systems. The company buys hardware from across the world, but develops its software, creates its own brands and eventually puts it all together into a unique solution offered to customers across multiple markets. Approximately one third of the total revenue is realised by the company's export of its products, and the plan, according to Popović, is for export revenue to reach half of the company's entire revenue by 2020.

Popovic spoke in depth on the topic of how the Croatian state can assist exporters in Osijek, including examples from some countries such as Canada, which funds research and development salaries in strategic industries. He also mentioned the fact that both China and South Korea have measures in place to reward their exporters.

"The interests of the state and society are for entrepreneurs to open up new jobs and invest more in development. The state should therefore encourage those who invest and open new jobs. How can it do that? It can do so by covering part of the costs incurred in research and development, and also with tax breaks on that work. We've seen that with the example of Romania, which has deemed their ICT industry a strategic industry, and has reduced the costs to all employees in that sector to as little possible. 300,000 foreign companies are now active in Romania. This country has become the largest centre for the development of the ICT industry and now the average salary in that sector in Romania is two thousand euros,'' Popović pointed out.

''We now have one hundred employees in Croatia, and 50 more outside of Croatia. On average, their salaries are over a thousand euros, of course, depending on the segment in which they work. It would be good if the taxes on these salaries were 20 to 30 percent lower, and that our employees' salaries were higher by that same amount. We're always in fear that the most important people will leave us, as they constantly receive offers from other companies. And not just those, but our company gets offers. We were the guest of the Irish development agency who suggested we move the entire company over to Ireland. For now, we're not going to do it, but if we end up in a situation where we're without people (staff), then what else can we do other than go there with them,'' admitted Popović.

In Croatia, this Croatian company has offices in Zagreb, Rijeka, Split, Zadar, and outside of Croatia it operates in all the countries of the former Yugoslavia, as well as in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia.

According to Popović, the best operating conditions are in Slovenia, followed by Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. In Croatia, the highest taxes are paid on employee salaries.

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An economic boost could well be on the cards for Croatian tourism as one of the country's most successful companies within that sector raises employee wages and aims for further expansion for 2019's tourist season.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 5th of November, 2018, after a successful seaso, one of the most successful tourist companies in Croatia, the Jadranka Group from Lošinj, is investing in the salaries of its employees and is looking for reinforcements for next season.

Jadranka Group's education program includes in-house workshops, theoretical lectures and practical training. Among them, the Gastro Academy stands out, and employees are encouraged to focus on improving the skills needed for high-level service at a five-star level.

With internal education, employees have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and skills and thus attend specialised programs held in external institutions for highly specialised professions such as those in concierge and bartending, to name a couple. Therefore, it comes as no real surprise that in Jadranka hotels, the daughter company of the Jadranka Group, the number of employees has doubled since 2009.

"We believe that salary increases are a logical step in developing the group's business and employee relationships, which are key factors for successful business operations. In the hotel and camping industry, we're constantly increasing from year to year so that along with the improvement of living and working conditions, we give a kind of acknowledgment and gratitude to our employees for our collective success. In addition, this year, we've increased the basic salaries in our commercial sector, for retail, wholesale and food production,'' said Sanjin Šolić, the CEO of the Jadranka Group, who celebrated 30 years of work in Jadranka last year.

When speaking about an economic boost, raising salaries and improving employee conditions come above all else.

Mr. Solić emphasised that one of the group's priorities is to ensure the proper conditions for seasonal employees as soon as possible. With this aim, the raising of the level of the tourist facilities to a four-star level began, in a move which will provide the employees with adequate accommodation and ensure much more enjoyable living conditions during their stay and time spent working there in Lošinj.

Jadranka Group's good attitude towards their seasonal workers speaks volumes in support of the fact that the group is by far one of the most desirable employers on the Croatian coast and islands.

In a further economic boost for the workers and the company, at the end of the season, they offer those workers a type of permanent status, which is a guaranteed job for the next year, as well as all of the rights enjoyed by permanent employees. Jadranka Group employs some 700 permanent employees, while during the tourist season the total number of employees stands at about 1,600, a large number of those employees are deployed in the group's daughters-businesses.

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One Croatian company is putting its money where its mouth is and making sure the current staff shortage issue facing many employers across the countery doesn't affect them. The company in question has been offering employees the deeply desired security of a permanent contract, and raising their base wages by as much as 20 percent.

The economic situation in Croatia is an unusual one. On the one hand, it's difficult to find a job, on the other hand, it's difficult for employers to find staff. While in theory the solution is simple, actually combatting and trying to find an effective remedy to such a bizarre situation can be difficult for some, but one Croatian company has quickly realised what needs to be done, and that is to offer the European standard to Croatian workers. They're even planning on expanding their business and recruiting more staff in the future.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 6th of November, 2018, Croatia's leading combine harvester production plant located in Županja, Slavonia, has managed to successfully tackle and avoid the now all too common problem of finding properly skilled workers and losing existing workers, according to a report from HRT.

The company owners gave their seasonal workers permanent jobs and increased their salaries by as much as 20 percent to make sure they're satisfied with their positions. Almost all of their production is exported, and their combine harvesters are searched for across Europe.

The production of a modern combine harvester takes 1,000 hours of work, and at the Same Deutz-Fahr Žetelice factory, they make up to three per day, as Josip Lenić, the head of manufacturing engineering at the factory, explained to HRT.

While many employers up and down Croatia are becoming increasingly burdened by their workers leaving to find positions elsewhere and abroad, this Slavonian company has avoided this issue. This year, they employed 54 workers permanently, and then raised their salaries.

The Županja-based combine harvester production plant exports its goods to almost all European countries, and, as stated, in the future they're planning on expanding the business and recruiting yet more staff.

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27 Croatian companies are also part of the historic Chinese international import fair.

As Marija Brnic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 6th of November, 2018, China will continue to open its market for foreign products and cut import tariffs, this was the main message from China's President Xia Jinping at the opening of China's first international import-export fair entitled China International Import Expo (CIIE), an event which has already been rated historic and whose opening in Shanghai was attended by the leading people of fourteen countries, including Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

More than 3,000 companies from 130 countries worldwide participate in this large gathering, and within the CIIE, the Croatian-Chinese Economic Forum will be held today, which will include 27 Croatian companies interested in entering into business cooperation with numerous Chinese partners.

Some of the companies have already established excellent market connections that include more than 1.4 billion people, such as Podravka, Badela 1862, and Pan Parket from Orahovica, which is the biggest advocate of turning Chinese customers towards the wood industry sector. Wood is also the main Croatian export product. In total, exports last year were worth a massive 126 million dollars. This year, exports to China are growing faster than they did in the previous record year, by as much as 44.5 percent.

PPS Galeković from Velika Gorica just outside of Zagreb is also representing the wood industry in Shanghai. Among the companies that want to enter the Chinese market are a significant number of smaller companies dealing with consulting, information projects and web design, such as Adricon Group, Mipesa, Provena, Gelt date, as well as a few industrialists - Meteor, a producer of detergents and chemical products from Đakovo in Slavonia, Kotka from Krapina, which specialises in the production of men's suits, and the well known Croatian special equipment producer, Lučko.

Partnership with Huawei?

Representatives of Luka (the port of) Ploče also attended the meeting, who, along with their counterparts from the port of Rijeka, which, during his speech on "Trade and Innovation", Plenković personally recommended to Asian companies operating in the European market. During the fair, the Croatian Prime Minister also had a working meeting with Huawei President for Europe, and Plenković stated that he expressed interest in intensifying cooperation and partnership with Croatia in the digital age.

In addition, the brand new Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ) office has been officially opened in Shanghai, with the aim of strengthening promotional activities on this market, from which Croatia continues to receive a growing number of visits. This year, Croatia will be visited by 250,000 Chinese tourists, which is a much higher figure than in previous years.

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Click here for the original article by Marija Brnic for Poslovni Dnevnik

Croatian products are known for their high quality, and the jump from market stand to the leaders of the market is a praiseworthy one.

As Vedran Balen/VL/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 28th of October, 2018, as many as seven thousand pallets with more than six million lamps and candles are produced each year by this Croatian company. 

The products find themselves on both the domestic and foreign markets and originate from from the small settlement of Zadubravlje near Slavonski Brod, and the company in question, Primax, has been the leading manufacturer of these products in Croatia for a great many years.

On the eve of the All Saints' Day, the company has their hands very much full, as one can easily imagine. The company's co-owner and director Robert Pandža stated that although he doesn't know for sure whether or not his company is the first in Croatia, he knows it works extremely hard. He added that every European region has its own idea of ​​how such candles and lamps should look, and they therefore try to satisfy and adapt to the often varying needs of a large market.

The Slavonski Brod native started work in this field way back in 1994, when just he and his wife ran the business. They started out with very humble beginnings, more specifically with a small stall on the market, eventually establishing a different development phase and managing to successfully adapt these Croatian products to the often ever-changing and demanding market conditions.

They started to import cosmetics and supply perfumeries and similar types of stores, of which there were a great many in Croatia at that time. They started to work on plastic sheeting, and then continued to expand yet further upon seeing that such a move had been very well received and was doing well. After numerous business ventures, they eventually decided to focus exclusively on production.

Today, Primax does exceptionally well and has some fifty employees who work in three shifts, their own production and storage area covers a handsome ​​2,000 square metres. During the course of a quarter of a century of their existence, the company has even changed its location on seven different occasions, mainly when they were more engaged in commercial activities as opposed to production. Years of work and valuable experience made them realise that they needed some serious production capacity, and a very serious approach to such a business. Thus, five years ago, they invested 14 million kuna of their own funds in the construction and the proper equipping of a new production hall in the village of Zadubravlje. After that, the production was all set up and ready for business, quite literally.

"It's not easy to produce six million pieces. To increase production again, we'll need to invest a lot again because candles require a large storage space. In this business, the biggest percentage of sales takes place within a month or two before All Saints Day, but production is already going on in February. The rotation cycle is similar to that of agriculture,'' explained Pandža.

As they purchased land one year earlier, their application for a subsidy was denied on the grounds that they had already started investing. Namely, only those who hadn't actually invested at the time could be nominated for the tender, so they remained without support. The only incentives they received were 300,000 kuna from European funds for the introduction of new software, 250,000 kuna from the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts for the improvement of production, and 100,000 kuna from Brod-Poavina County for the purchase of new machines.

"In Croatia, the main problem is the relationship with entrepreneurship. If we managed to get forty percent of that multi-million investment, we'd have yet another new line and a better position on the market today, and the workers would be more satisfied and they'd also be better paid. Otherwise, the general trend is a positive one and the situation is much better today than it was a few years ago.We're just not satisfied with the outcome,'' Pandža stated.

In addition to candles and lamps, they also produce PE foil from recycled or original material and packaging, and their annual turnover stands at around thirty million kuna. Their EBITDA ranges from 1.3 to 1.5 million kuna, while pure profit is about 300,000 kuna. About 35 percent of the company's production is exported to the European market, including France, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, and Finland, with a tendency for further growth.

Ultimately, exports should grow to more than fifty percent.

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Click here for the original article by Vedran Balen/VL on Poslovni Dnevnik

Sandra Perković meets Podravka. Linking Croatian companies and Croatian athletes is important for the overall strengthening of the image of Croatian products across the world.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 26th of October, 2018, one of the best Croatian athlete of all time, Sandra Perković, and the president of Podravka's board, Marin Pucar, signed an agreement on cooperation by which Sandra Perkovic becomes the ambassador of Podravka's products under the brand Vegeta Natur. The agreement was signed on Thursday, October the 25th, during Croatian Tourism Days (Dani Hrvatskog Turizma) held on the island of Hvar, under the organisation of the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Croatia, the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) and the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK).

"We're proud that our most successful athlete of all time, Sandra Perković, has joined the Podravka family. It's a great pleasure to bind ourselves to the best ones [athletes] who share in Podravka's important values such as valuable work, setting high goals, and the pursuit of excellence. These are the foundations of Sandra's best achievements, but also of Podravka's successful business,'' Podravka's Marin Pucar said during the signing of the Contract on cooperation, adding his desire for Sandra to take the title of the best athlete of the world this year, as she so deserves.

''I've grown up with Podravka's products and I'm glad I'm able to pass on the message about the quality and the value of these products to others through my work and my sporting activities. Connecting Croatian companies and Croatian athletes helps to promote Croatia's top-quality products across the world,'' stated Sandra Perković.

With its numerous brands and products, Podravka is present on more than sixty international markets.

Vegeta, as the original Croatian product, has become somewhat of a culinary phenomenon. In its almost six decades of existence, Vegeta has entered into the kitchens of consumers all over the world. In line with the trends on the culinary market, Vegeta has been being continuously upgraded throughout the years, and now we have Vegeta Natur.

Vegeta Natur products are enhanced with new recipes, which include a combination of carefully selected vegetables and spices with the message which bear the message ''by Mother Nature's recipe''.

During the Days of Croatian Tourism event was a panel called "Croatia - small country, big brand", in which Davor Bruketa, Jadranka Primorac, Aleksandar Dojčinović, Kristijan Staničić, and Božo Skoko participated along with Marina Pucar and Sandra Perković. Marin Pucar pointed out that Croatia's popularity in terms of tourism and sport should also be transferred into other spheres of the country's wider offer, particularly in terms of strengthening the image of Croatia's many top quality food products across the world.

For the latest news about Olympian champion Sandra, follow the TCN page here.

Gotovina seeks approval.