The largest companies come from 'green', the agricultural sector – the rapidly growing Agronom and Kutjevo. The industry is also strong, particularly manufacturers of fireplaces, stoves, and solid fuel heaters Plamen and Color emajl. They are characterized by a brown color, as are furniture and chocolate manufacturers – Spin Valis and Zvečevo. Therefore, it can be said that the county’s business community is based on green and brown colors.

When we tried to discover where Trenkovo, allegedly the home of the legendary Baron Trenk, is located about ten kilometers north of Požega in the early morning from the hillside above Požega, we experienced a unique sight. The sun rising from the right, between Dilj and Krndija, illuminated the entire area and painted it in golden hues of various tones. Golden fields, mostly cultivated, prevail. Powerful machinery has already emerged on them, as if someone is operating it with a joystick in a video game with the sound turned off. We can only imagine the roar of the engines powering the tractors during the spring planting of corn, sunflowers, soybeans, and sugar beets. Further southeast, the tones of gold are darker due to the shadows cast by the vines in the vineyards. Besides Moralić’s Kutjevo, there are other winemakers, the most famous of which are Enjingi and Krauthaker. It is precisely the golden wines that led the Romans to name the area bordered by Papuk, Krndija, Dilj, Požeška gora, and Krndija the Golden Valley.

The morning view showed us that this valley can be golden for other reasons as well. The first impression is confirmed by business data. We saw the largest county companies from the hotel window, which are Požega’s Agronom and Kutjevo. However, the first glance did not reveal that the Požega-Slavonia County is exceptionally industrially powerful. Among the ten largest, there are even five industrialists, and with Plamen from the Matijević family and the Color group from the Šutalo family, Požega is also the Croatian center for the production of fireplaces, stoves, and solid fuel heaters. There are also furniture manufacturer Spin Valis and the two strongest companies from Lipik – glass manufacturer Lipik Glas and mineral water producer Studenac. Agriculture is best characterized by the green color, while metal and furniture industries are represented by brown, so it can be concluded that business in the Golden Valley is dominated by a green-brown coalition.

– It’s a bit cramped here, we outgrew the space long ago, it’s crowded. The working conditions for people in the administrative building do not provide comfort; there have always been more urgent investments. And that is now changing; we are building a large Agrocenter in Požega where we will soon move our offices – welcomes us the CEO of Agronom Darko Aračić.  We will bring his story in tomorrow’s continuation of the Business Scene.

While Agronom was growing, Kutjevo has won awards for its wines in recent years (even Decanter awards), but it has stagnated at a business level of around 300 million kuna in revenue. Last year, it made a leap to 342 million, which is a growth of about 12 percent, but profit remained at the previous year’s level – at 27 million kuna. Enver Moralić moved from the head of the Supervisory Board to daily operations two years ago. Today, at the age of 87, he is the oldest CEO of such a large system.

Kutjevo – which boasts a winery tradition since 1232; a full 790 years – today cultivates 420 hectares of its own vineyards and another 370 hectares in cooperation with family farms. It is also engaged in crop and livestock farming. They expect a lot from hemp production and particularly emphasize fattening cattle with food from their own production, without GMOs, and regular grazing.

Moralić found himself in the spotlight of the business public at the end of last year. First, he invested three million euros in the purchase of Novi Žitopromet from Bijeljina (BiH), specialized in grain processing, and then Kutjevo expressed interest in purchasing Varaždin’s Koka. The owner of Koka, Vindija, or its owners, heirs of Dragutin Drk, responded that they were not interested in selling shares, but these moves also show that Moralić still has ambitions in the food sector.

An important company for Požega is certainly Zvečevo of Zdravko Alvir, which has been struggling with problems in recent years. Last year, it achieved revenue growth of over 50 percent and Zvečevo moved from a loss of 4.2 million to a profit of 24.5 million kuna. However, this was contributed by ‘other business revenues’ of 38 million kuna, primarily stemming from the sale of alcoholic beverages produced by Alci Zagreb.

The buyer promised to retain all jobs and production in Požega, and a one-time income – estimated at around 33 million kuna – Zvečevo will use for ‘continuation of financial restructuring’. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to save the company that invented chocolate with rice.

We return to the outskirts of Požega, in Završje, where the headquarters of Floreus is located, the leading Croatian producer and distributor of all types of floral decorations made from artificial materials. Founder and procurator Marija Baničin is satisfied with the small growth last year due to a series of business problems, from difficulties in supplying raw materials and rising energy prices to labor shortages, which forced them to reorganize the entire business. The real season for the 28 permanent employees began in February, so we leave them to produce enough arrangements for the peak season, for Sisvete, and head over Pleternica to the small village of Buka. There is the Windor factory of window profiles made of aluminum and wood, which is practically the only employer and employs about 30 people in a village of 162 residents. It’s like having a factory in Zagreb with more than 120,000 employees! Owner Stjepan Franjić modestly mentions satisfaction with last year’s growth of 20 to 30 percent. And in five years, the company has increased its revenue one and a half times! The owner vividly describes his business journey since 1992:

– We came to the Moon with horse-drawn carts!

And the Lider team says goodbye to Buka and sets off on their journey, albeit by car, not horse-drawn carts. We drive into the twilight towards Zagreb and the sun, which is just setting behind Psunj, enveloping the Golden Valley in darkness. But only until the next morning.  

► You can read the complete report on the business scene of Požega-Slavonia County in the new digital or printed edition of Lider.

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