Entrepreneurship is about caring for people; it motivates me that my people are satisfied and respect my relationship with them, while I have enough for a decent life. Caring for people is the key mission of an entrepreneur, emphasized one of the most successful and wealthiest Croatian entrepreneurs, Branko Roglić, on Tuesday while guesting on In His Film.
>>> Branko Roglić: We are entering our twentieth market and bringing Croatian suppliers with us
Roglić, who has created the largest European distribution company over the last 30 years, with a turnover of nearly two billion euros last year, found his role model in the recently deceased owner of Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad.
– I found a role model in a man who always traveled in economy class and alone, not in glamour or luxury. I am a fisherman at heart, said the founder and owner of the Orbico group, a sentiment confirmed by prominent economic journalist Miodrag Šajatović.
In Croatia, everything that can be privatized should be privatized as soon as possible, except for natural resources and shipping connections with the islands.
– When you meet him in a shopping center buying fishing equipment, you would never think he is a successful entrepreneur. He is very simple and has his calculations, his principles, and he does not give them up. However, in business terms, he clearly expresses his interests; he will not say ‘we’ll see’ out of friendship, which translates to ‘no’, but will openly say ‘no’, and you are always clear with him, said Šajatović, adding that Roglić makes very rational decisions and knows exactly where to invest. He deals with sectors that bring profit to Croatia – distribution and tourism, and the fact that he has not entered production indicates that production in Croatia is not profitable, he noted.
>>> Roglić: Taxes are hasty; we are exporters to those countries
– That is correct. I do not enter production because we lack resources. If we had resources, production would certainly appear in many areas in Croatia. The sea and fertile Slavonia are resources on which Croatia will develop, but we do not have mineral wealth; we have utilized water and oil energy, we have little oil and gas left. We have not utilized the coast, Slavonia; we need to implement irrigation there, and we have a small wood industry. Croatia will live from servicing, Roglić believes.
His motto is that he will never invest in something to go bankrupt, but to grow his capital and create surplus value. Everything that can be privatized in Croatia should be privatized as soon as possible, except for natural resources and shipping connections with the islands, Roglić is convinced.
On this occasion, he also recounted how his entrepreneurial story began. His meeting with a Czech spring maker, a Sudeten German, was a career turning point.
– We had very similar ideas; we saw that socialism would collapse and decided to establish the first Orbico with my 60,000 German marks in savings in Switzerland, said Roglić, who, together with his partner, earned 400,000 marks in three years.
>>> Branko Roglić became the sole owner of the Polish distributor Nava Polske Grupe
The rest of the story can be summarized in a few lines. At the Zagreb Fair, he meets the management of a Slovenian company in bankruptcy, takes it over, and Slovenian Orbico is born. The company was the representative of Varte and the German cosmetics house Ellen Betrix. The American multinational company Procter & Gamble buys Ellen Betrix and takes his company as a partner.
– That was a great fortune. Unintentionally, I came into contact with one of the largest companies in the world. I did my best to satisfy that giant, and evidently, I did it well. They also gave me their entire product line – Ariel, Dash, Pampers, said Roglić, who today manages his 19 companies in 19 countries from his office in Croatia.
