[Business Scene] INO Workshop from Strmec Exports Almost All Its Industrial Knives as Foreigners Pay More Regularly

Constant investments in technology have led INO from Strmec to an average annual growth of 10 to 15 percent, with 95 percent of production intended for export. INO Workshop produces industrial knives and other cutting tools for various industries such as metal, processing, paper, packaging, food, or for recycling plastic and paper, and manufactures knives from high-quality hardened tool steel, carbon steel, high-speed and PM steel, as well as stainless steel.  Last year’s total revenue of 7.2 million kuna is expected to grow by another 10 percent this year, according to Tomislav Kolman, the director of INO.

New Technologies   

The successful workshop owned by Dragutin Kolman, established 39 years ago, is actually run as a company by his sons Jurica and Tomislav (Tomislav’s wife Mateja manages the administration) who see their progress solely through investment in technology and employees. Tomislav Kolman announces that alongside the continuation of digitalization, they are even introducing robots and production autonomy to fulfill high-volume orders.

– We are currently handling serial jobs with 12 employees and two interns. Such jobs last about a week, but for non-standard orders, it takes a couple of months. Today, it is difficult to survive in the global market, as European manufacturers cannot offer products as cheaply as those in East Asia. The solution is to use new technology that allows for product quality at acceptable prices, which we are doing. We have penetrated foreign markets with the help of intermediaries and agents, and we are present in the German, Austrian, Dutch, Danish, French, Polish, and British markets, where we intend to find new customers. We tried to operate in the Croatian market as well, but we had problems with payment, so we turned to foreign markets – Kolman states.

The Most Important Business Move      

At INO, they have focused primarily on introducing new technologies because they realized how much such a business decision helped them 14 years ago during the global financial crisis. Although in 2009 they recorded a revenue drop of 15 percent compared to the previous year (when the crisis began), it was decided to invest in new technologies to improve product quality and expand production.

Kolman considers this decision to be the most important in their business so far, as the purchase of their first numerically controlled machine, a CNC 3-axis surface grinder, showed that it is only possible to survive market shocks more easily through investments in technology. When, in 2019, at the beginning of the corona crisis, they started building new production and office spaces (they moved into them last year), they continued to operate, as orders were still coming in. 

– We work on orders mainly for large companies that use 'outsourcing' (outsourcing; using external suppliers for a job). They then further market our products. During the corona crisis, deliveries were delayed due to difficulties in supply chains, but this has mostly been resolved now. However, we had to increase product prices due to rising energy costs. We did not use any state aid during the corona crisis, nor funds from European investment funds, but we have always relied on our own strengths – Kolman emphasized. 

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