Lider’s initiative ‘Counting Trailers’ enters its fourth season. While some count tourists, we count trailers loaded with goods for export, which are significantly more important to the national economy than the export of services, a fact that is largely overlooked in public discourse.
The Čakovec-based company Ferro-Preis has been operating since 1991 as part of the PREIS Group headquartered in Austria. It is a foundry for gray and ductile iron, serving as a living proof that ‘heavy‘ metal is still alive in Croatia.
On a monthly basis, Ferro-Preis ships around 60 trailers to various destinations outside Croatia, totaling 600 so far, with 720 trailers expected to leave their factory by the end of this year. Their production program consists of pipes and fittings for drainage systems produced under their own brand Preis drainage system, as well as industrial components made of gray and ductile iron.
Ferro-Preis is almost entirely oriented towards foreign markets, both due to their strategy and the weaknesses of the Croatian industry. A remarkable 97 percent of their revenue comes from exports, and for the remaining three percent, they can say that a significant portion also indirectly comes from exports through domestic customers, renowned manufacturers of industrial equipment and machinery.
– Customers of industrial castings are leaders from various industrial sectors, renowned manufacturers of pumps, bearings, electric motors and generators, agricultural machinery, railway vehicles… Our largest market is the European Union, especially Germany and Austria, and we export to Italy, Ireland, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Slovenia, and other countries – said Renato Martinjak, Sales and Marketing Director at Ferro-Preis.
