April the 4th, 2023 - Croatian Post (Hrvatska posta) has obtained 37 brand new trucks to carry out deliveries as part of the company's continued investment in doing ''greener'' business.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, a massive 2,717,474.40 euros (without VAT included) were invested in the purchase of these brand new trucks, and the price of the five-year contract includes maintenance costs, insurance costs and comprehensive Kasko insurance. The newly acquired trucks will replace similar vehicles obtained back in 2017 that have covered a total of 12.5 million kilometres since the beginning of the period of their use.

The new trucks that Croatian Post has obtained have engines that are characterised by reduced fuel consumption, they also have considerably lower maintenance costs and comply with the very strict Euro VI C environmental standards for the emission of harmful gases.

In line with the transformation of their business into a much more sustainable and ''green'' one, Croatian Post is continuing to modernise its entire vehicle fleet by purchasing vehicles that pollute the environment less and enable the more efficient transport of shipments and other types of cargo. Back at the beginning of this year, the biggest procurement cycle of electric vehicles was finally completed.

From October 2022 to January 2023, Croatian Post had its hands on 157 new electric vehicles, and for the first time, the company's delivery vans were included in the purchase. The postal green fleet now has more than 320 electric vehicles, including 114 vans and light delivery vehicles.

Along with the expansion of the green vehicle fleet, Croatian Post is also expanding its own network of charging stations for electric vehicles. So far, it has installed around 40 charging stations, and by the middle of this year there will be more than 80 of them dotted around the country. The charging stations will be located in as many as eighteen cities, from Osijek all the way down to Dubrovnik, which will ensure the prerequisites for expanding their fleet of electric vehicles throughout the Republic of Croatia.

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

September the 19th, 2022 - The Croatian postal market has managed to earn an income of 523 million kuna thanks to positive developments throughout this year's second quarter.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, positive developments on the Croatian postal market continued throughout the second quarter of 2022, and the total revenue amounted to 523 million kuna, the Croatian Regulatory Agency for Network Activities (HAKOM) announced recently. When compared to the previous quarter, revenues on the Croatian postal market increased by 6.3 percent, while compared to the same period of the previous year, they grew by 10.2 percent.

The result was primarily contributed to by services with greater, more added value, as the total number of postal services being carried out actually decreased. As such, in the second quarter, 8.2 million packages were transferred, which is 5.5 percent more than in the previous quarter and 12.6 percent more than last year.

In contrast to parcels and packages of a larger volume, a decline was recorded in letter shipments with one of the lowest recorded shares in the total number of services performed, which amounted to 79 percent in the middle of the year. With the reduction in the number of letters sent and delivered, the share of universal service fell below 50 percent for the first time. When it comes to the Croatian postal market and wider, more specifically international traffic, the number of services was higher by 11 percent.

The number of postal service providers across the Republic of Croatia didn't change, and in the middle of the year there were still 24 of them. The largest provider was of course Croatian Post (Hrvatska posta) with a share of 87 percent in the number of services performed and 58.3 percent in total revenues.

For more on the Croatian economy, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

ZAGREB, 22 July 2022 - A postage stamp with the motif of the Pelješac Bridge will be put into circulation on Tuesday, 26 July, when the bridge is expected to be formally inaugurated, Croatian Post (HP) said on Friday.

The Hrvatska Pošta plans to issue 60,000 copies.

The designer of the stamp is Dean Roksandić who has used a photo of the bridge taken by Dubrovnik photographer Mario Babarović as the basis for his design.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

April the 22nd, 2022 - Croatian Post (Hrvatska posta) has been making headlines for all the right reasons over the last few months, with everything from turning towards the green and digital transition to making huge investments making the news. 

Now, following the openings of new sorting centres and major cash injections, Croatian Post is set to provide a very welcome wage increase of 20 percent to around 8000 of its employees.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, just last week, Croatian Post, one of the largest employers in the Republic of Croatia, made the decision to increase the salaries earned by as many as 8,000 employees in operational jobs by as much as 20 percent this year.

The President of Croatian Post, Ivan Culo, pointed out: ''With all the challenges going on on the market at the moment which have affected our business - further development, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the earthquakes in 2020, our strength has always been our people.

With all of the investments the company has made in infrastructure and digitalisation, which have been made strategically over the last six years, I'm glad that we have made this decision. Our people are competitive on the labour market and it is up to us as employers to be competitive as well. Our employees are our window to our customers and as a company operating in a liberalised market for almost a decade now, we know very well that a satisfied worker is the path to a satisfied customer.''

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

ZAGREB, 6 April 2022 - Croatian Post (HP) stated on Wednesday that next week, it will issue a postal stamp with the motif of yellow rapeseed flower fields under a blue sky, as a  gesture of support to Ukraine whose flag consists of blue and yellow colours.

The postal stamp, with the title "For Peace in Ukraine", is designed to be a symbol of friendship between Croatia and Ukraine.

The issuance of the stamp is accompanied by a statement from the Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Ministry on Russia's unprovoked military aggression against Ukraine, and Zagreb's condemnation of the invasion and full support to Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

The author of the postal stamp is designer Alenka Lulić, and the author of the photograph used for the stamp is Darko Kešnjer.

The new postal stamp will be released on 12 April, and 30,000 copies will be in circulation.

For more, check out our lifestyle section. 

March the 15th, 2022 - The brand new Croatian Post Kukuljanovo logistics centre, about which there has been an enormous amount of talk, is now finally open and has provided welcome employment to more than 300 people.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the new Croatian Post Kukuljanovo logistics centre which will work to serve the wider Kvarner and Istria region, worth almost 60 million kuna, was opened last week in the Kukuljanovo Industrial Zone in the Bakar area.

On an area spanning a massive ​​4200 square metres are areas for sorting, the transport and delivery of shipments, a distribution centre and workshops, and a post office, and the new location employs more than 300 people. A modern business centre for Kvarner and Istria will improve the quality of delivery in the area as a whole.

Its construction completed Croatian Post's largest investment cycle, and Istria and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County received one of the four most modern points in the network of sorting facilities in all of the Republic of Croatia, which includes facilities in Zadar and Osijek and a new sorting centre in Velika Gorica close to Zagreb.

The Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butkovic said that he was glad that the company, which is 100 percent state-owned, has been a positive example of business for years and that Croatian Post is on an equal footing with some of the world's largest competitors.

"Thoughtful investments in digitalisation and infrastructure show that the direction of development of Croatian Post is very clearly defined and is the result of a strategic direction towards the future. It's clear to us that both the present and the future of logistics are packages. The trend of strengthening e-commerce was particularly pronounced in the years of the coronavirus pandemic, when online orders grew into the double digits,'' he said.

Global changes, he pointed out, didn't come as a shock or unpleasant surprise for the company and that numerous investments in infrastructure and digitalisation have turned it into a successful modern company that has a great impact on the domestic economy and encourages the development and growth of overall logistics in this country.

For more, check out our business section.

March the 7th, 2022 - A brand new Croatian Post logistics centre worth 60 million kuna is set to open its doors very soon, spanning a total area of 5,000 square metres and boasting its very own solar power plant.

As Novac/Jutarnji/Jozo Vrdoljak writes, on Friday, March the 11th, the new Croatian Post logistics centre will open in the Kukuljanovo industrial zone. The new Bakar-Kukuljanovo business facility, worth a massive 60 million kuna, will have a total area covering ​​almost 5,000 square metres as well as its own solar power plant. More than 300 employees of Croatian Post will work at that location. This investment, with which Croatian Post will complete all of its round of investments in infrastructure, created the proper preconditions for further logistical growth and development of the company itself, but also laid a good foundation for the development of the entire Croatian logistics market.

''The location of the new facility is crucial for raising the level of quality and all logistics work, and the new Croatian Post business facility will be located in a place with very good traffic connections. The facility is close to the Rijeka - Zagreb motorway and the Kvarner road, and the centre of Rijeka is only 10 kilometres away. The Kukuljanovo business facility, which will centralise operations with as many as five locations, is an important link in raising the quality and speed of providing services to all residents who gravitate to this area. This is a link for the raising of the quality and speed of providing services to all residents who gravitate to this area - Gorski kotar, Istria and Kvarner,'' stated Ivan Culo, the president of Croatian Post.

A five-year investment cycle

Over the past five years, Croatian Post has conducted an investment cycle amount to almost one billion kuna in total. In addition to investments in digitalisation, significant funds have been invested in expanding their existing facilities and building new logistics capacities. In addition to investing in Kukuljanovo, their logistics space in Osijek was expanded, a new logistics centre was built in Zadar, capacities were expanded in Bjelovar and a new sorting centre was built in Velika Gorica near Zagreb, which is the largest capital investment in Croatian Post's entire history. The new sorting centre was opened back in 2021 and is the largest capital investment in the history of Croatian Post, worth an enormous 350 million kuna.

''Infrastructural investments in the network of our sorting plants will have a favourable effect on the overall development of the logistics market across Croatia. All of the locations of modern sorting plants are strategically selected and are located in areas that are well connected in terms of traffic and are in line with logistics trends. Previously, such facilities were located in the centres of large cities, and today they're placed on the outskirts along important traffic routes. The number of locations where the operational part of the shipment business, such as sorting and processing, is performed has now decreased. In Zagreb, business with four locations was moved to the new sorting centre, while in Kukuljanovo the business with five locations is centralised,'' explained Culo, noting that the logistics sector had to find a solution to the e-commerce explosion in a short time and radically change established ways of meeting the varying needs of both private and business users.

''It's enough to look at record traffic, as well as at delays in ports all over the world, which are part of the wider crisis of global supply chains. Solutions exist, but they aren't cheap or quick. Smart investments are proving to be the key to success, as the rapid growth of e-commerce and package business, as one of the consequences of the pandemic, has shown just how important investments in technology and infrastructure truly are. Fortunately, we don't have to look for good examples outside of Croatian borders, because this one state-owned company in the coronavirus pandemic showed how to transform business operations in the short term and adapt to the new normal,'' explained Culo.

Culo also made sure to emphasise that Croatian Post, with this, its largest investment cycle in history, started several years before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

''Experience has shown that companies that were in the upward trajectory of their investment cycle were ready for the challenges presented by the pandemic, and there are many examples of companies that have further strengthened during the crisis. For years, modern logistics companies have been relocating their capacities from urban centres to locations close to well-connected cities. Such is the case with this new Croatian Post logistics centre, but it isn't the only modern sorting plant owned by us. Users will feel the results of that investment through an even better service and a guarantee that their turn towards e-commerce will be successfully monitored by the company. A large number of packages arriving every day is nothing new to operational workers, and everything that arrives at the sorting plant continues on the same day towards its final destination,'' said Culo, adding that with the growth of the package business, reverse logistics is becoming more and more important.

For more, check out our business section.

February the 13th, 2022 - The yet-to-be-opened Kukuljanovo logistics centre near the City of Rijeka on the Northern Adriatic is the result of yet more investments made by Croatian post (Hrvatska posta), of which there have been several lately.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, after spending the cash of an an investment cycle totalling almost one billion kuna over the last five years, most of which went to building new and modernising existing logistics capacities, Croatian Post (HP) is about to open the new Kukuljanovo logistics centre (LC) in the Kukuljanovo industrial zone near Rijeka. The facility is worth 60 million kuna, and it should be in operation in around one month.

Prerequisites for further growth

Croatian post explained that in the previous period, their logistics space in the City of Osijek was expanded, a new logistics centre was built in Zadar, capacities in Bjelovar were expanded and a new sorting centre was built in Velika Gorica near Zagreb, which, totalling a massive 350 million kuna, is the largest investment in Croatian post's history.

According to them, the Kukuljanovo logistics centre with its 5,000 square meters of business space is the final point of investment in infrastructure, which created the preconditions for further logistical growth and development of the company.

“The new Kukuljanovo logistics centre is an important link when it comes to raising the quality and speed of providing our services to all residents who gravitate to this area - Gorski kotar, Istria, Kvarner... Infrastructural investments in the network of sorting plants will have a favourable effect on the overall development of the logistics market across Croatia.

All of the locations of modern sorting plants are strategically selected and are placed in locations that are well connected in terms of traffic and are in line with logistics trends. In the past, such facilities were located in the centres of large cities, and today they're placed on the outskirts along important traffic routes.

The number of locations where the operational part of the shipment business, such as sorting and processing, is performed, while not reducing the number of post offices available, is in more than 800 settlements with a network of 1,016 post offices,'' they said from Croatian post, headed by Ivan Culo.

"With this investment in the Kukuljanovo logistics centre, we're completing this cycle of investments in logistics and logistics infrastructure in accordance with the development strategy. Employees, green energy and digital development are the direction we're heading in. Investing in logistics and sorting capacities, the digitalisation of processes and the ‘last mile’ in the form of a network of parcel machines has brought us to a completely equal position of the leading EU postal operators. We're no longer a trend-following post office, but an equal partner. Global e-commerce retailers recognised us before the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, and we've justified their trust in us over the last two years,'' Culo added.

In order to be in the trend of the EU Green Agenda, the Kukuljanovo logistics centre will have a solar power plant installed on its roof.

An explosion of logistical needs

The growth of e-commerce and especially Croatia's accession to the European Union (EU) has led to an explosion of logistical needs in this country. The entire logistics sector had to find a solution in a relatively short time and radically change its established ways of meeting the needs of both private and business users.

The situation was further accentuated by the global coronavirus pandemic, and for many people, online shopping and the delivery of goods to their doors has become a substitute for going out shopping in the classic way, ie going to the store. Solutions for the "new normal" do of course exist, but they aren't cheap or fast.

The fact that the transformation of Croatian post, through investments in new technology and infrastructure, has been recognised, is confirmed by the fact that some of the largest Internet retailers, such as Amazon, AboutYou and many others have chosen them for their services in Croatia and the wider region. It's worth noting that Croatian post processes Amazon shipments even for Greece and Cyprus.

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

January the 20th, 2022 - Croatian Post (Hrvatska posta) has apparently been introducing brand new services in order to up its game left, right and centre of late, and yet another new one has been launched. Aircash app payments can now be made in more than 1000 post offices across the country.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, from now on, customers can pay for goods and services carried out by Croatian Post in a total of 1,016 post offices with Aircash app payments, ie through the very first Croatian digital wallet which was and continues to be a roaring success on the domestic market.

In addition to following the trends and habits of consumers and customers in order to keep the existing ones and attract new ones, Croatian Post says that they want to strengthen their role of "a leader in the digitalisation of business in Croatia."

“Each of our post offices has a prominent QR code on the counters that the user of the Aircash application should read on his mobile phone when paying for something. You can pay for the retail range digitally in our post offices (except for HAC ENC vouchers, e-vouchers from mobile operators and lottery tickets), for all postal services, Paket24 express delivery services and philatelic products,'' they explained from Croatian Post.

Aircash is otherwise the fastest growing Croatian fintech with more than 200,000 active users based in Croatia alone, and it offers its users the ability to pay for items and withdraw cash through the application. This move in which Aircash app payments will be allowed for a range of Croatian Post's services will certainly appeal to many.

They are also registered with the European Banking Authority (EBA), which is the umbrella regulator and gives them the right to do business across all European Union (EU) member states. In addition to being very much present here in Croatia, they are available in neighbouring Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Spain and Romania, with plans to spread their wings even further across the bloc.

For more, check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

January the 7th, 2022 - Croatian post (Hrvatska posta) has been in the news on and off for very positive reasons and because of the innovation it has introduced over recent months. This brand new Croatian post service isn't common even in far more developed European countries.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, instead of sending certain types of mail to people's home addresses, senders can now send registered items via digital channels for the first time thanks to yet another brand new and modern Croatian post service.

This is the new eDelivery project successfully implemented by Croatian Post, the Ministry of Justice and Administration and the IT company Sedam IT. The project developed and implemented a solution for the delivery of electronic documents to individuals and legal entities, which is in line with the eIDAS regulation of the European Union (EU).

"Croatian Post is continuing with its digital transformation. This project is a novelty that is not so well represented in the EU, which places us at the very top of the EU countries that are certified for this type of service. This is a fully certified, secure channel. The registered shipment that we have today in physical form is moving towards a more secure digital environment, which upon receipt is confirmed by a digital signature,'' explained Ivan Culo, President of the Management Board of Croatian Post.

Sedam IT was responsible for the development and design of the software and other key software components of this new Croatian Post service, and they created a communication channel that enabled the connection of Croatian Post's IT system and the Ministry of Justice and Administration through which electronic documents are transferred, all according to stringent EU standards.

The total value of the eDelivery project stands at 310,000 euros, and 75 percent of the amount was co-financed by various grants from the Connecting Europe Facility.

For more, check out our dedicated lifestyle section.