[Business Scene] Solinski Centaurus: We are receiving more and more inquiries from the best restaurants, including Michelin ones

One employee, two chests, and one vehicle, this is how twenty years ago brothers Ivo and Toni Bartulović started their business, founders of the company Centaurus. Smiling, modest, and warm, they welcome us to their headquarters in Solin, which we managed to reach despite completely wrong navigation directions that directed us towards the Split prison in Bilice. Perhaps it knew something we did not. In any case, a few patient calls to our hosts led us on the right path. Driven by the wind, we quickly cross the spacious yard and settle into the director’s office with the Bartulović brothers.

Expanded Business

– We are the Centaurus group, core business is fish – Toni begins the story, sitting at his desk and briefly describing how they developed their own brand Gastro fish market Brač through retail over the last ten years. They opened one retail store per year and now have 11. – We have managed to create the largest private chain of fish markets in Croatia. Usually, if someone is in this business, they manage to reach the number three because this business is very difficult, it has tough exposures with perishable goods, quality control, people, and everything else – explains Toni.

Three years ago, their fish markets in Split, Solin, Podstrana, Omiš, Kaštel Gomilica, and Brela were joined by a fish market in Vienna. There, together with Milan Prgomet, they opened the company Centaurus Gmbh and named the retail GastroFisch Brač. – The start was phenomenal, everything slowed down a bit during the pandemic. We hope that with recovery and the end of the pandemic, the positive trend will continue because we have proven ourselves with quality and service, customers have recognized us, and we are receiving more inquiries from the best restaurants, including Michelin ones – reveals Toni the excitement of conquering the Austrian market.

The Centaurus group also includes the company Gastro Hvar, which they opened two years ago in collaboration with Grgo Fistonić to get closer to sailors. They are not just a point where yachts come for supplies while traveling through the Adriatic, but Gastro Hvar supplies restaurants, taverns, and hotels on Hvar. Since they are in the luxury horeca channel, business was difficult during the pandemic, but last year, we learn, was extraordinary for them. – Retail fish sales had extraordinary results during the pandemic, all major retail chains recorded an increase in fish sales. On the other hand, this was not the case for those specialized in horeca. Restrictions, difficult travel, and closed restaurants took their toll. We also had stagnation in the horeca part of the business, but the most important thing is that we are sustainable, that there are no losses, and that we are ready for better times – Toni looks optimistically to the future.

Production Investments in Focus

Centaurus is focusing on investments in production this year. Namely, with their brand Amare, which means love from the sea, they have already established themselves in the market as a significant producer of hand-peeled shrimp tails. They process more than 200 tons annually, and this is one of their main products in fish markets. Given that shrimp is an integral part of many risottos, pasta, and fish dishes, Centaurus has started making various fish broths and fish patties. This has been excellently received in retail, but also in horeca channels, so their goal now is to bring this production to a premium level. So far, they have invested three million euros in their facilities, and the new investment will be around one million euros, for which they will also use European funds.

– Our interest is exclusively in the production of Adriatic ingredients, from the very beginning we have been engaged in production in smaller quantities, and this has been growing all the time. We have a slight organic growth, and our goal is to produce as many modern products from Adriatic ingredients as possible. As for geographical expansion, we are going meter by meter, we will focus for now on production and existing markets – Ivo joins the conversation, from whom we learn that 90 percent of the fish is purchased from cooperatives, and the remaining ten percent comes from their own catch. Their business is based on ‘wild fish’, i.e., caught fish, not farmed fish.

Conquering the Market and ‘Eating Smaller Fish’

In the first years, they will focus on the domestic market with new products, but they also plan to enter the foreign market, which allows easier growth and development due to higher purchasing power. However, the owners of Centaurus want to grow gradually to preserve and better control the quality of their products.

– There is no rush. This year we celebrate 20 years of existence, we have a lot of experience, working hours, effort, and tears behind us to reach the position we are in now, and that is why we want every next move we make to be calculated one hundred percent. We started from scratch without anyone’s help, and since then we have been constantly growing. Last year we grew by a record 35 percent. We see ourselves in that constant growth and certainly want to continue into the future with the same employees. We have more than a hundred employees, over 50 percent have been with us for more than five years, and ten percent have been with us for over ten years – emphasizes Ivo, while Toni nods and adds that even just keeping existing people will be a great success. – We don’t need to hire a lot, we don’t need to grow, to run after being the national number one, but if those people stay with us, we know we will achieve success – Toni adds.

Although they deal with fish, they do not plan any business maneuvers that are often described as larger fish eating smaller ones. In other words, they do not intend to acquire companies or family farms, nor allow anyone to take them over, although such offers have been made. They are still young, but they would no longer have the strength to start something from scratch, the brothers laugh.

Gastroparadoxes

Immersed in the underwater world, they see room for positive changes. It is illogical that Croatia bases gastro-tourism on squid, which is not sufficiently available in the Adriatic even in winter, let alone in summer when it is most sought after and must be imported. On the other hand, mullet and sea bream, which are most caught in the Adriatic in summer, cannot be sold on the domestic market but are exported to Italy and Spain, which build tourism on them. This is the main mistake, believes Ivo Bartulović, because it is precisely on these fish that they could build gastro-tourism that would last 12 months. Centaurus has ten percent of exports in revenue, and their main export markets are Austria, Italy, and Spain.

– Our menus are based on larger pieces and more expensive fish, and it is even a common belief that fish is expensive. Instead of turning to the consumption of cheaper fish from trawlers and purse seiners. Much more work should and must be done on promoting domestic catches, cheaper fish, and ways of preparing it, starting from kindergarten. It is a shame that children in kindergarten eat breaded hake fillet that came from imports instead of domestic Adriatic fish. Our breaded hake fillet is more expensive than the imported one, but when they eat ours, we know what they are eating – explains Ivo.

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