Dajana Mrčela leaves the helm of Saponia, Ivan Grbešić appointed in her place

The former CEO of Saponia, Dajana Mrčela, is leaving her leadership position at the domestic company, and Ivan Grbešić, son of the late Mirko Grbešić, founder of the Mepas Group, which includes Saponia, is taking her place.

The Supervisory Board appointed Davor Bošnjaković as a new member of the Management Board at today’s meeting, according to a statement from the Zagreb Stock Exchange. Grbešić and Bošnjaković have been appointed for a five-year term, while the third member of the Management Board is Hrvoje Bujan, who recently joined Saponia from Franck.

Mrčela, who became CEO in 2019 and has been a member of the company’s Management Board since 2006, announced on her LinkedIn profile today that she is leaving Saponia after nearly 30 years.

– New people bring new winds, and nothing is eternal. After 29 years at Saponia, where I built a career dedicated to production and socially responsible business, the time has come for changes and exploring new market challenges.

In these 29 years, I have traveled from an intern to CEO, and I leave Saponia in better shape than ever. We successfully completed the digitalization, energetically renovated all six production facilities, Saponia’s shares achieved record numbers, and we have had the best business years in Saponia’s history across all KPIs.

Saponia is the company where I grew both as a manager and as a person, where I could successfully live my mission of ecological and social responsibility, a company that has received numerous awards for ecology and business, and where I personally achieved my greatest business successes. I look back on those years with gratitude, at the people with whom I achieved this and at the company I will always consider my own.

I wish that under new leadership, they sail bravely into new challenges, and I have learned that leadership is always tied to change and adaptation and that true visionaries rejoice at stepping out of their comfort zone. Because although every change is difficult at first, it brings a new vision, refreshment, curiosity, and exploration of one’s own possibilities. They say one should change when at the peak, so I will wave goodbye to everything that brought me to where I am now and joyfully open some new doors that this wind brings – stated in Mrčela’s announcement.

Saponia recorded revenue growth from 2019 to 2021, with revenues amounting to 94 million euros in 2022, representing a growth of 4.7 percent. Last year, a profit of 2.9 million euros was achieved, which was an increase of 183 percent compared to 2021.

This decision comes shortly after we announced that the Supervisory Board of Saponia appointed Hrvoje Bujan as a new member of its Management Board for a period of five years. Bujan came to the new position from Franck’s company Franck Snogoo, where he was director since 2017.