Winemaking, pastry making, baking, floristry, pharmacy, agriculture, wholesale, publishing, oil production, pizzerias, furniture and chocolate production, and the automotive industry are just some of the sectors for which Adriakarton from Trogir produces cardboard packaging. Since its establishment in 1991, Adriakarton has produced around 30,000 tons of packaging or 1,000 tons of cardboard boxes per year, and with its 2,500 square meters, it is the largest cardboard packaging factory in Dalmatia. Founder and director Marinko Nikolić states that they produce all types of boxes, from three-layer and five-layer corrugated cardboard, printed or unprinted, die-cut or American-style (which are glued after packing, not self-assembling), in other words, simply put: they custom-make everything – from pencil boxes to refrigerator boxes.
Cardboard production is primarily a local story, Nikolić said, mainly because cardboard packaging does not withstand long-distance transport. He explains that it is a low-cost product that is also bulky and takes up a lot of space. For example, a truck with a capacity of 40 tons can carry a maximum of 12 tons of cardboard packaging.
Among the First
– This is precisely our advantage that protects us from competition from the mainland, but at the same time, it is a weakness that stops us from penetrating markets outside Croatia. Nevertheless, our boxes are on the production lines of some of the largest European car manufacturers such as the Volkswagen Group and Daimler-Benz, thanks to our local customers. They pack the parts for the automotive industry produced in Solin and Dugi Rat in our boxes. In our beginnings, we were one of the first private companies in the county, among the few in Trogir. Today, the situation is much different. With the entry into the European Union and the general trend of business internationalization, trade barriers are decreasing. Delivery, even intercontinental, is easily accessible to everyone, which makes the offer much larger and more diverse, and potential customers are more informed about alternatives. When we started, there was a shortage of everything in the market. I believe we would have succeeded if we had started anything since there was a huge demand literally for everything, including cardboard packaging. Additionally, at that time, there was serious production in Dalmatia, much larger than today, and there was also a great need for cardboard packaging for those products. We saw the market potential and started the company, Nikolić describes.
Investment in Other Activities
Before starting packaging production, Nikolić invested in tourism. This was in the 1980s, during the time of socialist tourism when he had already built the first apartments in the area and was among the first to open a travel agency in Trogir. The family also worked in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, and Nikolić was the investment director at Unioninvest in Bosnia and Herzegovina before moving with his family to Trogir at the end of 1986.
– Today we operate in multiple sectors and have several companies, but we still make all decisions within the family. My wife Milka and daughter Martina manage the tourism sector, while my sons Marin and Matej handle real estate, investments, and production. In recent years, our most important investment has been in real estate. Why real estate? The passion for real estate was crucial, in addition to the fact that I am a civil engineering graduate. On our website, we also offer products from the Austrian brand Sopro, which produces binding materials in construction. We obtained its representation as a result of years of cooperation, as we regularly purchased and incorporated those products into our facilities. To survive in business, especially in production, you must constantly invest. Since our founding, we have had several investment cycles. One of the larger investments was in 2002 when we launched a new production facility covering 1,000 square meters. We also invested in purchasing new machinery: slotters, die-cutters, glue machines, winders, and others. Due to constant technological changes, we plan to soon replace machines with new, faster, and more modern ones. Additionally, we closely monitor trends and listen to market needs for complementary products, and accordingly, we consider investing in related activities, Nikolić states.
