Ever since the Agrokor crisis threatened to sink the domestic economy, the Croatian market has been a rocky one, but despite that, Konzum is back on its feet and is even attracting purchasing potential.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 7th of December, 2018, Milo Ćurković, the owner and CEO of the popular shopping chain, Plodine, said that although he doesn't believe we that Plodine are the only interested party, he believes that they would be the most ready to take over Konzum.

In terms of revenue and income, Plodine is by far largest company in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, and when it comes to the top-list of retail chains in Croatia, they're in third place, with a share of between 10 and 20 percent, just like both Lidl and Kaufland, while the almighty Konzum is still gripping onto first place, according to a report from Novi list.

"The crisis in Agrokor was dangerous for the entire economy, however, everything was fine in the sense that the taxpayers didn't have to bear the consequences of it, and that's what is most important," said Ćurković for Novi list, revealing that Plodine is very much interested in purchasing Konzum.

''We absolutely are. The question is, of course, what the [Agrokor's] new owners will do. The new owners are bankers, creditors, and my estimate is that for the bank, this isn't their main business, so, as soon as the company is consolidated, they'll sell that part of the business, which we're ready for and want. I think the entire consolidation process will last two to three years, and we'll be further prepared in that period so that we're fully prepared for that potential acquisition at the right time. This will be the most interesting acquisition for all of us in this sector.

We're waiting to see how the situation in Agrokor will turn out. I don't believe that we're the only ones interested [in purchasing Konzum], but I believe that we're the most ready for the takeover of Konzum. This isn't just about finances. You have to be ready for personnel, organisational, logistical matters, and we've fulfilled those conditions,'' said Ćurković, adding that anyone who succeeds in buying Konzum will definitely be the main player on the Croatian retail market and that nobody would be able to do better.

"Our goal is to be the main player on the Croatian market," concluded Ćurković.

Make sure to stay up to date on the Croatian market, doing business in Croatia, and the domestic business and investment climate by following our dedicated business page.

You know that old British saying ''It ain't over til the fat lady sings''? Well, you could easily apply that to the ongoing Agrokor saga. Yes, things have calmed down enormously, with the company having made a miraculous turnaround from pre-bankruptcy to regaining its strength and operating normally, but the story isn't over yet.

Fabris Peruško, the current extraordinary commissioner leading Agrokor's administration, stated recently that Agrokor is finally back on its feet, and not only that, but that it still has all the potential to remain one of the strongest and largest companies in this part of Europe.

While Agrokor is expected to return to totally normal business next year, under a different name and with Russia's Sberbank as a majority owner, things still aren't all steady, and this is one of them. 

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 5th of December, 2018, Russia's Sberbank, one of Agrokor's largest shareholders, has already begun receiving bids for its huge share in the Agrokor Group.

Maxim Poletajev, advisor to the CEO of Sberbank, stated that Sberbank has already begun receiving bid for its share from various funds from the United States, Canada, and much closer to home in Europe, from the United Kingdom, according to a report from N1.

"Everything will depend on the price, we're currently considering offers," Poletajev stated very briefly. He also said that Russia's Sberbank was currently in talks with various investors who could potentially take part in refinancing Agrokor's debt.

Fabris Peruško should become the president of the board, Poletajev added.

As the Agrokor story continues to write its own pages and as its former owner, Ivica Todorić, pays a million euros in bail to leave prison and announce his entry into the Croatian political world, it's more and more difficult to predict exactly what will happen next, but in any case, follow our dedicated business and politics pages to stay up to date.

A new retail chain is coming to from Italy and offering a wealth of new possibilities for shopping in Croatia. Eurospin is a discount store with enviable revenue and income, and it is bringing job openings with it.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 3rd of December, 2018, not so long ago, Germany's Hofer attempted to take to the Croatian market, announcing its opening in the western part of Zagreb and its surroundings, even going as far as to recruit workers, and then, without explanation, it withdrew.

With regard to ads on social networks in both Zagreb and Rijeka seeking workers, construction land, commercial property with parking in cities with more than 10,000 people living there, the question is when will the Croatian market become richer for another major international trade chain - Eurospin.

As Vecernji list writes, Eurospin is a classic Italian discount store with more than 1,000 stores across Italy and 80 in neighbouring Slovenia, boasting about 7,000 workers, record revenues of 4.7 billion euro and an income of 184 million euro in 2017.

While this is far from the leading ten players in Europe, among which the Schwarz group is the frontrunner with both Lidl and Kaufland in the same portfolio, when it comes to the Croatian market, in which the top ten of the total 38.7 percent of total retail revenues continues to hold more than 80 percent of the market share, the Eurospin concept such as PennyMarket, Aldi, or Hofer is certainly significant when it comes to shopping in Croatia.

Specialising in the discounted sale of food products and daily shopping, Eurospin differs from other competitors in Europe by selling its brands exclusively. There are no classic brands found in other chains in these stores, only those that this retail chain's team plotted through its very own network of carefully selected partners.

The company has adjusted the format of its products in accordance with the taste and traditions of the individual markets, as Lidl is doing today, and this formula proved to be a winning one, first in Italy, and then in neighbouring Slovenia.

Back in 2000, they were the first in Italy in this segment by the number of sales points, turnover, and number of customers, they now want to become the most significant in Europe.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for information on doing business, retail, and shopping in Croatia and much more.

As Gordana Grgas/Novac.hr writes on the 1st of December, 2018, after much talk and many announcements, the official launch of the first Chinese investment in Croatia took place last week, which should reach the staggering amount of 160 million euro in two years.

This massive foreign investment is an interesting one, not only because of the amount, and not only because it's pioneering in its nature, but because when looked at in its wider context, it's a big part of the strategic Chinese "One Belt, One Way" initiative. It certainly ''lit up'' on the ever-watchful radar of the European Commission, which overlooks investments from third countries, it also naturally drew the attention of all those who look at China's investments in Croatia in a more geopolitical context. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković presented it as part of "project-oriented cooperation between the two countries".

The project itself is the construction of a wind farm near Senj, which was inaugurated by a huge Chinese construction company, Norinco International Cooperation, one year after signing a contract to take over a majority stake in the Croatian company - Energija projekt. This 32 million euro transaction was also recorded in a large analysis of both realised and announced Chinese investments across Europe, which was published by Bloomberg in the spring, pointing out that over the last ten years alone, the figures of such huge Chinese investments reached an incredible 300 billion euro.

The CEO of the Peking-based Norinco International Cooperation, Wang Yitong, was present at the opening ceremony in Senj last week. Otherwise, the company is listed on the stock exchange (the Shenzhen Stock Exchange), but is actually owned by the state. The situation is rather complicated, but when it is looked at objectively, it's clear that Norinco is part of the gigantic China North Industries Corporation, which was founded back in the 1980s and is among the largest state-owned conglomerates in terms of assets and revenues, and is the world's best known company for the production of weapons of all kinds.

Since 1999, it has been a part of an even larger group of companies, the China North Industries Group Corporation (CNGC). It is made up of fifty companies with a total of about 280,000 employees, it accounts for more than 40 percent of its revenue outside of China, operates in 40 countries, and is engaged in research and development, as well as in the production of weapons and military equipment. It is also involved in mining and oil businesses.

This group, abbreviated as just CNGC, is on this year's Fortune magazine's list at 140th place on of the list of global top-ranked companies, estimated at 64 billion dollars. As was published by Jane's Defense Weekly, CNGC has been on the list of twenty state-run Chinese firms for restructuring since last year, when the Chinese Government announced that it would accelerate a reform program to introduce "mixed ownership". This is a measure of privatisation, and from the huge group, as was announced last year, twelve companies are listed on stock exchanges from the automotive, electronics, and chemical industries.

Owing to above, Croatia did not enter into the Senj project via a private company, but with a company associated with the very leaders of the Chinese state, which is a part of an important conglomerate. In Brussels, the somewhat expected raising of eyebrows has so far been following and challenging the major Croatian contract with the Chinese to carry out works on the long awaited Pelješac Bridge. The strategic project is cofinanced by money from the European Union budget, and Brussels isn't happy that the Chinese will be the ones to built it.

Now, in a direct Chinese investment in Croatia, into the energy sector (several similar ones have already been realised in the EU), the Chinese will, in a period of two years, build 39 wind turbines with a total power of 156 megawatts under Velebit, while Brinje and Senj will see 5.5 million kuna a year spent on wind energy, Croatian subcontractors will be part of the construction work.

For the takeover of Energija projekt, over which the former owners have been holding disputes, the Chinese have engaged the American consultancy firm Norton Rose Fulbright, and the process was brought to an end and registered at the Commercial Court in Rijeka back in September this year. Thus, the Chinese company has also taken over the rights to build and manage the wind power plant near Senj, and the consultants' belief is that Norinco is "taking the initial position for entering the European Union market and then expanding and increasing its market share within the EU, and obtaining references in a new business environment". Plenković has expressed his hopes for Norinco to be the predecessor to other Chinese companies and further direct Chinese investment in Croatia, often holds talks about intensifying relations, and is preparing a meeting on the subject which will be held in Croatia in the spring of 2019.

Geopolitical experts, like one particular Berlin think tank, announced earlier this year that China's investments, especially when they are made by state-owned companies, should always be looked at as an attempt to secure influence over European Union politics. But should Plenković really worry about that now? Probably not; direct foreign investment is not so common, and whether or not Chinese companies will appear on projects such as construction of railway lines, more specifically what will happen with the Chinese investment in the Port of Zadar and the cooperation between Chinese and Croatian construction companies and such, is yet to be seen.

During current moments on the international scene, China continues to attract large amounts of attention as a global creditor, not just as an investor, and despite Chinese investments in Croatia, the country doesn't have such an experience under its belt. Yet.

Recently, the New York Times published a text entitled "The World, Built by China", which analyses as many as 600 projects in as many as 112 countries worldwide which were somehow funded by the Chinese over the last decade, from gas pipelines to bridges, roads to railway lines, and many more. Many of these projects are part of the strategic "One Belt, One Way" initiative (often described as the Silk Road for the 21st Century), and in the aforementioned text, the Chinese strategy is even compared with the American plan after the Second World War, yet describing it to be ''brave, expensive, and far more risky".

Make sure to follow our business page for more news on Chinese investment in Croatia and much more.

Click here for the original article by Gordana Grgas on Novac.hr (Jutarnji)

Agrokor has made a dramatic and unexpected turnaround as bankruptcy and almost total collapse loomed. Having gone from being the most powerful company in the region, to having almost dragged the entire domestic economy to its knees, and then back to proper functioning in just two years, Agrokor's story is a remarkable one, and one of resilience in the face of adversity.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 1st of December, 2018, Fabris Peruško, Agrokor's extraordinary commissioner, speaks about Agrokor's continued strength and resilience over an extremely difficult period of time.

"Out of the whole series of related, significant events [that took place] in 2018, three key issues are still being identified as breaking ones in terms of the future of the Agrokor Group - the creditors' agreement on the settlement, the hearing at which that settlement was voted for, and, finally, the validity of the settlement with the High Court's confirmation. A significant factor for the success of Agrokor's extraordinary administration was the strength of Agrokor's companies to continue to improve their business, especially their efficiency, in a very turbulent environment.

Their good results are the backdrop of the future and a powerful argument against the uncertainty and fear that followed the process. The importance of the fact that one of the largest restructuring processes in the world has been realised in such a short time and so successfully is still not being valued in the right way.

In just two years, the largest private company in Croatia and the region, without incurring upon one lipa at the taxpayers' expense, has emerged from its pre-government regime, has undergone a demanding financial restructuring through the settlement of more than 5,700 creditors, and instead of crushing the entire economy of Croatia and the region, Agrokor functions well to this very day, provides employment, provides revenue to the state budget and in its relations with its business partners, and respects all of the agreed upon deadlines.

The implementation of the settlement - a process which will be operationally executed by the creditors' settlement agreement - is ahead of us - a very complex business transfer to the new group. The start of that implementation is expected at the beginning of next year, and it should be fully concluded during the first half of 2019, and then we'll get a company bearing a new name and a new corporate culture. The creditors agreed that the future group would be based on three main pillars: retail, food, and agriculture.

In each of them [the aforementioned three main pillars] there is room for improvement, especially in terms of efficiency, so the operational restructuring we've started is also directed at that. The focus is on areas where the value lies.

Synergic initiatives within the group have been intensified, key business indicators have been unified and business reporting and business segments have been drawn up. The function of the treasury as well as the function of human resources have been strengthened.

In terms of retail, we're currently working on standardising the process in all components, there is great food export potential in which we have leaders throughout the region, and in some areas of agriculture, we can become European players. Although there are challenges through refinancing the oldest loan and long-term capital structure, Agrokor has perspective, and all the prerequisites to remain one of the largest companies in this part of Europe."

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for more on Agrokor and much more.

As Suzana Varosanec/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of November, 2018, Business Intelligence (Poslovna inteligencija), the leading company for the implementation of analytical and strategic ICT consulting in Southeast Europe, is planning to take its business across the Atlantic to the North American continent, most likely to Canada, in a move which would be the next big step for the Croatian ICT company following the opening of their offices in two major European cities, London and Vienna.

The bold plan was confirmed by the president of the management of the aforementioned Croatian ICT company, Dražen Oreščanin, who Poslovni Dnevnik caught up with while he was on an official trip to Canada, where the Croatian-Canadian Economic Forum in Toronto was held. He was heading there as part of visit of numerous Croatian businessmen, which had already been reported by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK).
 
What are your estimates of the possible effects of the visit of our economic delegation to Canada?

Every step we made towards developing cooperation is a good step, and can make moves. During this visit, several activities were held - a forum with the Canadian-Croatian Chamber of Commerce, B2B meetings with interested Toronto companies, a meeting with the local community of Croatian emigrants in Toronto, a visit to the Kitchener Technology Centre, Waterloo University, and two hi-tech companies in Toronto. Existing contacts are interesting, and time will show whether or not it will result in some specific work.
 
What are the impressions on strengthening economic cooperation?

I think there's a mutual interest, the current commodity trade is fairly small, and the numbers grow year after year. The new CETA deal makes it much easier to trade between the European Union and Canada, and the very fact that HGK and the ambassadors of both countries are actively involved in the organisation of such a visit speaks of mutual interest and great potential.
 
What do the Canadians generally say about the business climate and the benefits of starting a business and investing in our country?

The conversations I mainly led were focused on potential opportunities that we as a Business Intelligence have on the Canadian market, but I didn't  talk to my interlocutors about just those topics. Recently, the Canadian company Constellation took over IN2, one of the largest IT companies in Croatia, so it's obvious that investment interest exists.
 
What is the potential for further expansion of the company on the Canadian market, as well as cooperation with the companies over there?

I certainly see the potential, I hope that some of the conversations we've had to turn into some concrete opportunities and work. We're certainly planning to open up a company on the North American continent after we open companies in London and Vienna. What I've seen during this visit is truly exceptional and very competitive when compared to other places we're contemplating in the United States. We'll probably make a final decision based on the volume of work we have in a specific part of the US and Canada, and here, the potential for a company like Business Intelligence is definitely big.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business and Made in Croatia pages for more information on this Croatian ICT company, other various companies from up and down the country and their services.

Click here for the original article/interview by Suzana Varosanec for Poslovni Dnevnik

Doing business in Croatia is always tricky, it's a long road often filled with an insane amount of paperwork and this bizarre requirement for you to physically go to multiple locations in order to get things done. Let's not forget the dreaded and archaic stamps, and the typical utter lack of desire on the faces of those apparently employed to help you. Is all that about to change with the country's gradual formation into a digital Croatia?

As Marija Brnic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of November, 2018, as of April the 1st next year, all those who want to start their own business in Croatia would be able to complete the process for registration and start doing business within just 48 hours. No, it isn't just an April Fools' trick.

A new business start-up system called Start will enable those who want to start their own businesses in the country to do just that, in a move which has been a deeply desired pipe dream up until now. With digital Croatia now finally on the horizon, getting your business off the ground is about to get a lot easier.

The service, which has been prepared by the Finance Agency (FINA), was finally given the green light following a government decision since last week. By the end of March next year, this system will be available to all those operating from within Croatia who own companies, including d.o.o and j.d.o.o's, while those abroad will see the service enabled for them by the end of 2019.

While start is an incredibly welcome news, it isn't the only player on the field, since 2005, Hitro.hr has been active, and is also a service from Fina. However, the Ministry of Economy, which is overseeing this project, clarified that there are some big differences between Hitro.hr and Start.

"Hitro.hr allows only the establishment of an Association or a company (obrt), or entry into the court or company register, while Start also enables the start-up of a business, which includes registration with the court and the company register, as well as entry into the register of business entities at the Central Bureau of Statistics, the filing of the beginning of the business and the beginning of the insurance with the Croatian Health Insurance Institute and the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute,the  registration of the taxpayers' register with the Tax Administration, registration in the VAT system, the opening of a bank account, and the electronic payment of any fees incurred during the process of all this,'' they explained from the Ministry of the Economy.

The beginnings of a digital Croatia will see that in the future, company owners will not physically have to go to all of the mentioned institutions as they currently need to, and all of the applications involved in this paperwork ridden and tiresome process will be able to be exported in one place by filling out a single digital form.

The establishment of this system amounts to 5 million kuna, as foreseen in the Ministry of Economy's budget, and in a year's time, it intends to back the project up with yet another half a million kuna.

Start requires automated communication and the exchange of data and documents between the ministries of economy, justice, finance, the tax administration, DZS, HZMO, HZZO, and credit institutions. Hitro.hr will not be harmed or otherwise threatened by the more than welcome launch of the Start system, as was confirmed by the Ministry of Economy, this service fulfills the objectives for which it was founded - better informing future entrepreneurs and providing better communication between people and the state administration, as well as offering far more ease and saving precious time when establishing a company.

"Hitro.hr will continue to provide services to users who need that kind of help - information ''at the counter'' and help with name reservations, or just the mere establishment of a company," the Ministry pointed out.

Fina added that if a user wants to start a business from their own home, they will beed to use Start, and if they want to start a business by going to the Hitro.hr counter and taking all the other steps individually, they will still have that option as well. Therefore, for those who prefer the "classic" Croatian way of starting a business, characterised by their physical arrival at the dreaded counter, Fina intends to keep the Hitro.hr offices open.

However, due to the ever-increasing trend in the digitisation of public services and the inclusion of newer generations in their use, Fina has also estimated that the percentage of those who prefer to use Start will grow year-by-year. Since the establishment of Hitro.hr, a large number of entrepreneurs have used it during the first step, especially when establishing a j.d.o.o., where every other such form of company since the service's introduction back in 2012, was established through Hitro.hr.

Altogether, Hitro has helped to create more than 57,000 new companies, of which some 32,000 are d.o.o.'s and 25,000 are j.d.o.o.'s. Obrt owners, however, have rarely used this registration service, since their start-up process is different, and since 2015, e-Obrt services have been introduced, which has completely taken over the registration processes of such companies.

The introduction of the Start system will not automatically open new jobs according to Fina's information. Currently, the offices of Hitro.hr are located in 61 Fina offices throughout Croatia, and information and support services are provided to them by Fina's existing employees, while as far as Start is concerned, as an online service, part of Hitro.hr staff will be engaged in staffing it via Fina.

Among the recommendations the World Bank gave to Croatia, the pressing need to create a more digital Croatia in order to improve the entrepreneurial climate was among the most outstanding, and it is precisely the creation of a unique online procedure, as opposed to the archaic dragging of one feet to numerous different offices in which processes are slow, confusing and often delayed, that will help paint a better picture of doing business in Croatia the most.

Interesting data from the analysis of Doing Business shows that starting up a business in Croatia is the easiest in Split, and there in the popular Dalmatian city are the largest number of Hitro.hr users. Out of five large Croatian cities, the worst results have rather surprisingly been recorded in Zagreb. According to Doing Business's analysis, more than half of Split's newly established companies use Hitro.hr, and for starting a business there, it is necessary to complete six individual procedures and the process typically lasts six days on average.

In Zagreb things appear bizarrely different, in the capital, a would-be entrepreneur has to complete eight different procedures and it takes a ridiculous average of three weeks for all the paperwork to be dealt with.

The welcome electronic changes that April the 1st, 2019, is set to bring owing to Start will require these procedures to be reduced in all cities across Croatia to just one step, and thanks to digital Croatia's roots finally being planted, the duration of this previously insanely time consuming process will go on for an absolute maximum of two days.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle and business pages for more information on digital Croatia and much more.

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

Government spending has risen since 2009, citizen spending has slowed down, and employers continue to express their heightened anxiety about the emigration of Croatia's domestic labour force. Despite issues, a good Croatian tourist season has seen the economy boosted in the third quarter.

As Ljubica Gataric/VL/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 28th of November, 2018, the Croatian economy grew by 2.8 percent in the third quarter of this year, which is better than the previous expectations of domestic economists, but slower than the economy grew during the same period over last three years. A good Croatian tourist season has of course done its job well, and along with tourism, this positive contribution to economic growth has also been boosted by the further export of goods.

While a good Croatian tourist season is the main thing ''holding up'' these positive results, data following the first GDP estimate reveals that the domestic construction sector recovered more (by about seven percent in surplus), while the manufacturing industry's impact on GDP was negative (minus two percent) since industrial production collapsed that bit more this year.

"Taking into account the possibilities and the framework we're currently facing, particularly the labour market situation and the challenges we have in industrial production, GDP growth of 2.8 percent is a relatively good result, almost at the maximum limit," commented employers around Croatian Employers' Association (HUP), which claims that regardless of the good results in the third quarter, they feel a slight slowdown in growth and a general sense of anxiety and nervousness among employers owing to problems with finding staff and the continuous fall in overall production.

HUP has also used this opportunity to become louder and louder still in its call on the Croatian Government to further ease the economy so that companies can raise employee salaries and thus prevent further migration of the country's young and highly educated people in an ongoing and extremely concerning demographic crisis. Croatia entered winter with 147,000 unemployed people registered on the labour market, as well as 15,000 job vacancies.

In addition to the fact that movements being made in the Croatian economy aren't in support of the current global trends, especially in terms of the dynamics of growth in the European Union, analysts from the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) have noted that relative to the first half of this year, slight changes in growth trends have indeed occurred in some categories of particular demand.

Personal consumption growth has slowed down as the category which has the highest share in the structure of total demand, while when it comes to government spending, investment in fixed capital and especially the export of goods and services, growth has been accelerating.

Looking at the figures, domestic demand during the first six months of 2018 had three and a half times greater impact on the growth of gross domestic product than in foreign countries. RBA analysts note that government consumption at a 3.9 percent rate rose more this year than in the first quarter of 2009, and growth in gross fixed capital investment continued to grow quarterly, an increase of 3.7 percent in the third quarter, which may indicate the increased utilisation of funds from the European Union.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle and business pages for much more.

Click here for the original article by Ljubica Gataric/VL on Poslovni Dnevnik

The largest Croatian software company and the very first one to exceed 1000 employees has allegedly begun plans for the construction of the Infobip Campus Zagreb.

As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of November, 2018, the largest Croatian software company, Infobip, has apparently decided to surpass itself once again and is planning to build an even larger campus than the one that opened its doors last year in Vodnjan in Istria, this time in the Croatian capital.

To briefly recall, at the end of last year, Infobip Campus Pangea was opened by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, and this facility, boasting 17,000 square metres in total, became the largest IT campus in the whole country.

The photogallery entitled "Infobip Campus Zagreb" with dozens of images of the new facility was published on LinkedIn by the multi award-winning Zagreb studio SODAarhitekti. After publishing, the post quickly received more than 200 likes, and among the ''likers'' was Infobip's chief operating director, Robert Kutić. Discussions about the construction of a campus in Zagreb have been going on for some time, but there had not been any actual confirmation of that fact until now.

Among the rumours circulated the information that Infobip was looking for PR agencies to properly ''follow'' this project for the company. The photographs show that the campus in Zagreb is expected to be larger than the one in Vodnjan, potentially twice as large. According to the currently available information, the new campus will be located in Klara in New Zagreb, in the area of the city where Microsoft, DHL, Styria, Croteam, and other companies are based.

Vedran Jukić, owner of SODAarhitektat, who initially published the photo gallery on LinkedIn, was unavailable for comment. Infobip also refused to comment on it.

Despite that, Poslovni Dnevnik was unofficially informed from close sources to the company that "that they're just pictures, and the published work is unlikely to be selected". Infobip already has a smaller office in the old part of Zagreb, near Trešnjevka, but apparently plans to continue expanding rapidly. In early 2017, it became the first Croatian software company with more than a thousand employees, and by the middle of this year, there were already over 1,300 of them, of which around 500 are based here in Croatia.

The largest Croatian software company already has fifty offices across all continents except the Antarctic, and its services are used by as many as four billion people worldwide.

The company reportedly made more than a quarter of a billion euro at the global level in 2016, with 350 million euro in profit last year. As was confirmed by the co-founder and director of Infobo Silvio Kutić, they grew 30 percent last year. If Infobip continues to grow at this impressive pace, this year the company could reach 455 million euro, or 3.4 billion kuna, in total revenue. Despite these educated guesses and calculated estimates, these figures are impossible to check because the company's official headquarters are located in London, United Kingdom.

Make sure to follow our Made in Croatia and business pages for more info on business in Croatia.

Click here for the original article by Bernard Ivezic for Poslovni Dnevnik

According to Ipsos research, at least one negative shopping experience was reported by 29 percent of the respondents so far. In line with EU rules, a new Croatian Central Consumer Portal may provide the answer for consumers to be able to access everything they need to know about their rights.

As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 25th of November, 2018, a new set of European Union rules will soon be incorporated into domestic consumer protection legislation with the adoption of proposals sent to the Croatian Parliament.

Despite the generally welcome move, practice hasn't reflected theory so far, and information has shown that consumers tend to find it very hard to deal with the proverbial "forest" of regulations that exist when it comes to consumer rights and protection, and want easier access to information about their rights, as well as clear instructions to find out exactly who to contact when they feel that their rights have been denied, violated, or otherwise infringed upon.

The Ministry of Economy is therefore preparing a unique, Croatian central consumer portal entitled "Everything for Consumers" (Sve za potrošače) which should kick off with work by the end of this year, or just a little later at the very beginning of 2019.

"Our goal is that consumers no longer have to waste their time to first get the information [they need] about which competent body they require, then [spending more time] on just how to get to the [required] information from that body, but instead to have everything they need to know at their disposal - from how the product needs to be labelled in order for them to get all the information they need, and how it's necessary to point out the retail price to the possibility of the termination of the contract and the return of the goods, to what to pay attention to before they make purchases online,'' they state from the Ministry of Economy.

For the launch of the Croatian central consumer portal, inspiration drawn directly from field experience was used, and this year, campaigns across the country were organised, in March, September, and even on this coming Saturday another one will held at Zagreb's Zrinjevac.

The research conducted into this by the Ipsos agency back in September for the aforementioned Ministry shows how just a very small number of those over the age of 16, a mere 16.7 percent, believe they are somewhat or completely acquainted with their consumer rights. As many of 33.5 percent of consumers are totally unaware of what their rights as consumers are, and at least one negative customer experience was experienced by as many as 29 percent of the respondents, and most of them, as much as 71 percent, had a problem with a purchased product, followed then by public service irregularities (20 percent).

The move on creating the Croatian central consumer portal, and generally on placing greater emphasis and concern on consumer rights has been welcomed by Croatia because it ensures the continued proper functioning of the market, and the customer's satisfaction is very much in the interest of business people working in this field because transparency and fair rules often work as a trustworthy condition for returns, with re-purchases often then being made.

Make sure to stay up to date with our dedicated business and politics pages for more information like this.

Click here for the original article by Darko Bicak for Poslovni Dnevnik