May the 11th, 2023 - The much loved and wildly popular Museum of Illusions, which attracts large numbers each year here in Zagreb, has been awarded the Franchise Brand Leader Award 2022.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, approximately 220 franchises are currently active across the Republic of Croatia in various industries, and in the last three and a half years, there has been a noticeable growth of domestic franchises. Among the names on that ever-expanding list is the Museum of Illusions, and it has been declared the winner of the Franchise of the Year 2022 Award.

The Franchise Brand Leader Award 2022 was launched last year by the Croatian Association for Franchise Business-FIP and Darko Bukovic, the director of the online radio Poslovni FM/Business FM.

The fact that there is a lot of room for the export of various kinds of Croatian franchises has been well and truly showcased by the examples of last year's awarded car rental companies Carwiz International and Surf 'n' Fries, as well as this year's main winner of the award - the Museum of Illusions.

In addition to the Franchise of the Year 2022 Award, the Museum of Illusions also received the award for the best Croatian export franchise and for the biggest export breakthrough. This particular unique museum franchise will represent the Republic of Croatia at the franchise fair in Frankfurt and will also compete for the "2023 European Franchise Award" at the end of September this year in the Belgian capital of Brussels.

Since its beginnings back in 2015, the Museum of Illusions has expanded from the City of Zagreb to more than 40 locations in 25 countries around the world. According to the plan, the office and museum will open this year in Atlanta, as well as in several other cities across the pond in the United States of America.

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

August the 26th, 2022 - The highly successful Croatian franchise Carwiz is set to expand to the markets of Kosovo and Slovakia as it continues its spread across the globe.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, one of the most successful Croatian franchises, the rent-a-car company Carwiz, is continuing its expansion on the global market, and new partners are coming from Slovakia and Kosovo.

As explained by the Zagreb-based company, after the signing of the contract with the aforementioned two new partners, new Carwiz offices are expected to be opened in these countries, namely at Pristina Airport and Gnjilan, and in Slovakia at Bratislava Airport.

Sabedin Sinani, RCK sh.P.k. the director of the franchisor from Kosovo, pointed out that the main reason for their joining the rapidly expanding Carwiz rent-a-car network was because they recognised the global influence and effectiveness of the brand in the region and beyond it.

"I believe that together, through the Carwiz brand, we'll manage to highlight the seriousness and quality of our joint business, and thus successfully continue to respond to the demanding market conditions and user needs," said Sinani.

The success of working through the Carwiz brand is best demonstrated by the example of Slovakia, given that the same company that operates as a franchisor in the Czech Republic, and after only two and a half years of being there, it has recorded impressive business growth through an increase in reservations of as much as 92% compared to 2021.

Considering the results achieved in the past time in the Czech Republic, Erik Rajohnson, director of RX auto s.r.o. decided to expand to the Slovakian market through the Carwiz brand.

"Being part of the Carwiz family has proven to be a safe and productive business move. Doing business through the Carwiz brand over the last two years brought us a strong positioning of the company on the market and results that exceeded our expectations, even through situations of global crises. We're extremely satisfied, and taking all that into account, it wasn't difficult to make the decision that we want to repeat it here in Slovakia," Rajohnson said.

Carwiz has also announced that their network expansion strategy will certainly not stop at Kosovo and Slovakia, and according to the development plan, they have already announced the signing of contracts with some more new franchisors, emphasising that given the good sales results of all tourism branches of the economy throughout 2022, which shows signs of recovery in tourist traffic after two years of the coronavirus crisis, it is likely that they are approaching the levels of traffic they enjoyed back in 2019.

For Carwiz International, this means the continuation of the extremely successful expansion of the franchisor network in more than 30 countries around the world. The last major expansion was a few months ago in Poland, where they opened four new locations and now have eight points in that country.

Cities on the wish list

“We see enormous potential for a brand like Carwiz in Poland. Despite almost two years of the global coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, people still want to rent reliable cars at good prices. We saw an opportunity for growth and decided to continue with the development plans. We'll by no means stop there because there are more cities on our wish list," said Robert Mucha, the CEO of Carwiz Poland.

In the last year of operation, Carwiz International has signed 12 partnerships, and today, in addition to being present here in Croatia, it operates in Greece, Serbia, Albania, Iceland, the Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, Morocco, St. Maarten, Latvia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, USA, Mauritius, Malta, Montenegro, Canada, Romania, and soon Kosovo and Slovakia.

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