Lider’s 1000 Largest: You Will Be Surprised Which County Increased Its Revenues the Most in the TOP 1000 Over Ten Years

The publication '1000 Largest' – which we are publishing alongside this week's digital and printed edition of Lider – reveals a range of useful data about the operations of the largest Croatian companies, as well as the balance of power among sectors and counties, especially when current data is compared to the situation ten years ago.

When discussing the regional map of business activities, the dominance of Zagreb is always highlighted. This year, the capital has as many as 500 companies on the list, more than ever before. This is not particularly surprising. However, it is less expected that Zagreb's companies had a 66 percent share of the revenues in the TOP 1000 ten years ago, and that share was reduced to below 62 percent last year, which is actually a relative decrease of seven percent.

On the other hand, the Zagreb ring has achieved constant growth every year over the past decade. On the current list, there are today 78 companies from Zagreb County, 17 more than in 2011. Their share of revenues increased from 3.8 percent to 6.9 percent, which is a relative growth of 80 percent. During this period, the total revenues of the County increased by more than 14 billion kuna, while Zagreb lost 9.4 billion. Clearly, companies have retained Zagreb as a magnet and the largest market, but have relocated to nearby towns and municipalities that offer more favorable business conditions.

Thus, Zagreb County has become the second business force, albeit far behind the untouchable Zagreb, but ahead of significantly larger counties such as Split-Dalmatia, Primorje-Gorski Kotar, and Osijek-Baranja, while the small Sveta Nedjelja has 23 companies in the TOP 1000, just ten fewer than the large Split, and ahead of that town between Zagreb and Samobor are only Rijeka with 27 companies and Osijek with 24.

However, Zagreb County is not the most dynamic. It has been surpassed by a county that increased its revenues from 4.1 billion kuna to 15.4 billion, and its share from less than one percent to 3.4 percent, which is a relative increase of 259 percent! The surprise is even greater because it is Vukovar-Srijem County. Nevertheless, there are explanations for a good part of that rise. It was a decade of growth for PPD, which at that time grew by more than nine billion kuna. However, the rest of the county's entrepreneurs also performed solidly, and there are 27 companies on the list, six more than in 2011.

In the context of share growth, it would be unfair not to mention two northwestern counties, Međimurje and Krapina-Zagorje, as well as Požega-Slavonia.

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And where are the biggest losers of the past decade? The Adriatic counties have lost the most share – Dubrovnik-Neretva, Istria, and Zadar. And, while the far south suffered during the pandemic, which reduced the number of companies from the county from 14 to 6, Istria was losing share in previous years as well. Of the 47 companies from 2011 that were in the TOP 1000, it lost seven by 2019, and another seven during the pandemic, and now has only 33 companies in the prestigious group. It should be noted that part of the decline in the share of Istrian entrepreneurs relates to the agony of Uljanik, from which more than two million kuna in revenue left the TOP 1000. And the bill was paid by large cooperatives, either through bankruptcy or reduced revenues.

This ad-hoc analysis shows trends, but it also has shortcomings. For example, the accompanying chart leads to the conclusion of stagnation in Split-Dalmatia and Varaždin counties. However, Varaždin already had an exceptionally strong entrepreneurial base at the beginning, and Dalmatia increased the number of companies from 60 in 2011 to 66 in 2019, but last year they lost seven mostly tourism-related victims of the pandemic.  

Read the supplement 1000 largest on 148 pages with this issue of the printed and digital Lider.

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