[Business Travelogue] The Pool of Former Yugoslavia Remains Empty, Poreč’s Plima Begins Importing Construction Workers from Nepal

The Poreč construction company Plima, co-owned and managed equally by three Hasanagić brothers for over two decades, is one of those that has slowly grown thanks to collaboration with hotel companies and the increasing demand for tourist construction. The rapid growth of Istrian builders’ revenues in recent years has also been aided by a foray into the retail sector, with the opening of their own retail store for construction materials.

That tourism in Istria may not be everything to everyone, but is certainly a dominant economic sector upon which many other economic activities depend and with which they rise and fall, is confirmed by Mirzet Hasanagić, director and co-owner of the construction company Plima based in Poreč, specialized in high-rise construction and largely reliant on Istrian tourism.

– A high proportion of our company’s work is related to tourism construction, certainly around 50 percent. A good part of our services involves the construction of apartment buildings. In the last year and a half, real estate prices in Istria have skyrocketed, there is a lot of investment, and we are doing a lot in that segment. We collaborate with hotel companies and every year we complete a rotation of certain works for them, whether it’s pools, beaches, or hospitality facilities – the director and co-owner of Plima informs us.

They employ eighty people and another hundred subcontractors, and in the last five years, their revenues have tripled, reaching approximately sixty million kuna in 2020. The company has grown thanks to increasingly sought-after construction jobs, but also due to the opening of their own retail store for construction materials four years ago. Hasanagić states that entering the retail niche was inevitable sooner or later, given the potential for additional earnings, and because it seemed logical to move in that direction since they are also large consumers of those goods. The store today accounts for up to 40 percent of their total revenue, but further expansions in the retail segment are not planned.

– We have carved out our piece of market sky, we have our loyal customers, that is enough for us, and we are not thinking about opening new stores – Hasanagić notes.

Plans include expansion in the construction segment, entering a related niche, about which Plima does not want to speak in detail for now, and their development plans do not include leaving Istria because, as the director reasons, there is no need for that given that there is enough work in Istria. The usual challenge in the construction sector, that of labor shortages, has not bypassed the Poreč construction company, which is still resisting it for now.

– We do not have major problems with labor. We have retained staff who have worked with us, some for twenty years; we are not a passing company. Of course, if we want to retain quality labor, we must pay them. A labor shortage could prove to be a problem in the future if expansion occurs. We have people working with us from all parts of the former Yugoslavia, but that pool of labor in the region has already been depleted. People have gone west, and we are now, still experimentally to see how they will fit in with us, bringing people from Nepal – Hasanagić speaks about the standard challenge not only in construction.

A much bigger problem for the Poreč construction company Plima, which predominantly operates in tourist areas, are the construction bans during the tourist season. Those approximately four months without work devastate their business, says Hasanagić, and it is difficult for them to balance the necessary number of people, as well as to generally function in areas where tourism is present, practically throughout Istria, being aware, of course, that they live off tourism and must respect the bans.

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