April the 18th, 2023 - The Zagreb Loonapark company is young, and it is already looking at a very promising future after having doubled its income and with plans for further employment opportunities.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, there really is nothing missing in the already extremely thick catalog of promotional materials of the Zagreb Loonapark company. From indispensable cups of all types, colours and designs, the most sought-after bottles and thermoses, to lamps, pendants, bags, ecological ballpoint pens, this young company does it all.
In short, there's no promotional material that the Zagreb Loonapark company's team can't design and deliver to their clients. The richness of their offer and the individual approach they take has ensured their great success, because in just two years of being operational, they've managed to profile themselves as one of the leading companies for the production of promotional material in all of the Republic of Croatia.
The management of the company, founders Robert Bozic and Domagoj Vrdoljak, therefore have every reason to be satisfied. In the second year of their operations, the company's revenues doubled to a very impressive 6.6 million kuna, or 876,000 euros. Their number of employees also grew from the initial three to nine.
They offer more than 40,000 items from within their range and they also have a respectable number of clients, among whom are some of the biggest names of the domestic economy, from Atlantic Grupa, Infobip, Microblink and Allianz osiguranje to Infinum. Despite their obvious success, their beginnings were not at all easy because they started Loonapark's business in the middle of the unprecedented coronavirus crisis.
"Clients recognised us, and almost everyone we worked with would recommend us to someone else, so it wasn't really a question of whether we would grow, but by much we'd grow," stated Robert Bozic, the co-founder and CEO of Promo spot, under which the Zagreb Loonapark company's brand operates. Their clients come from various sectors, from trade, tourism, the HoReCa sector to the IT and the processing industry, and they're of all sizes - small, medium and large enterprises.
"The list of companies we work with is large and varied, which is good because we aren't dependent on any one in this way. For example, our five largest clients account for 25 percent of Loonapark's revenue," Bozic explained. A significant investment, in the amount of 40 thousand euros, in their web shop, i.e. online sales, also contributed to the growth of their business. Their web sales have been refreshed, optimised and their search engine has been improved, Bozic pointed out, adding that it's their main sales tool.
"It's precisely through the web shop that we get contacted by companies that we've never heard of and that we think are micro or small, but later it turns out that they are successful and respectable IT companies that just aren't very publicly known. Therefore, high-quality business cooperation often results from the contacts we make through the web shop," said the executive director of the Zagreb Loonapark company.
On top of all of the above, this company's wide array of clients, who are increasingly looking for recycled and degradable materials and custom-made products that are special and different, are won over and retained by their approach.
"In this segment, we've made the biggest step forward because we care that we approach each client individually and that they get everything they need in one place. In addition, through our graphic preparation and design department, we can offer them new and different solutions depending on the campaign they're working on and the message they want to send out," emphasised Bozic. In the end, it was precisely this approach that, in just two years of being operational, placed them among the leading companies involved in the production of promotional materials in the country.
The coronavirus crisis didn't really harm them either, and we all know that as a result of the public health crisis, most marketing budgets were drastically cut. In fact, in that first year of their business being up and running, they achieved an impressive 3.6 million kuna in revenue (478,000 euros). Their business wasn't affected by the increase in the prices of materials, for example paper by about 15 percent, by products purchased from China by about 40 percent (due to the increase in shipping costs), nor by the increase in delivery days by 30 to 45 days, to 120 days in total.
"We founded the company during the crisis, so we've become used to crises and as such we're optimistic", said the founder of the company, which mainly procures its materials from Europe, mostly from the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary and Portugal, while they procure a smaller part of the assortment from China, but that's mainly what is needed for making products to order.
They also aren't worried about their business results this year due to announcements of a slowdown in economic growth and even a potential crisis. It's well known that in every crisis, the budgets for marketing are cut first, but Bozic isn't afraid of that and expects that the Zagreb Loonapark company will grow by 20 percent this year, as well as the next. They're also planning to employ one to two people in sales. The company will try to achieve more visibility on the market and make even more contacts with the industry at the Days of Communications, one of the biggest events in the field of marketing in all of Croatia, which will soon be held in Rovinj. Loonapark will be a partner of this event this year, and as Bozic pointed out, this represents a good opportunity for them to connect more strongly with industry experts across the board and create new business opportunities.
The long-term plan of this ambitious young Zagreb company is to develop even further and turn into an agency that will offer their clients a very comprehensive approach, i.e. brand development, and then communication campaigns.
"At the end of this year or at the beginning of 2024, we plan to launch new departments within Loonapark,'' announced the CEO of the company, which is currently in one of the most intense periods of the year. Now, Bozic explains, companies are preparing their campaigns for the upcoming summer, so there is a lot of work and inquiries to deal with. The second most intensive period is, as expected, the end of the year, that is, the last quarter.
Bozic emphasised that the success of the Zagreb Loonapark company was definitely contributed by the employees and their intense engagement. In order for the company to be as high quality as possible, it invests a lot in employee education, which they receive through training sessions and various sorts of workshops. According to Bozic, they have no problems with finding and retaining staff, unlike the vast majority of employers in Croatia.
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