Goran Dolenec: In the coming year, we will establish stable foundations for Chromos for the next 100 years

Last year, Chromos paints and coatings and KANSAI HELIOS Croatia, through which the Kansai Helios Coatings group operates in Croatia, recorded a consolidated revenue growth of 7.6 percent compared to the previous year. The 23 million euros earned last year, according to Goran Dolenec, director of Chromos paints and coatings, are primarily the result of entering new markets, strengthening cooperation with established local partners, and customer loyalty to Chromos brands. Chromos’ strongest brands such as Luxal, Chromlux, Chromoden, Fasadex, and Poliflora, Dolenec emphasizes, are the biggest assets, some of which are over a hundred years old and have been used for generations. Among professional solutions, the leaders are the RoofExpert brand for roof protection and FloorExpert for epoxy floors. Chromos paints and coatings have long been synonymous with parquet lacquers, interior wall paints, facade paints and plasters, wood and metal paints, lacquers, and construction materials, and Dolenec is convinced that this will remain the case.

How is your business performing this year and what are the indications for the next?

– We are satisfied with our business this year. Given the seasonality of our industry, the first part of the year started slower than usual. The cause of this is the large number of rainy days in the first part of the year, which significantly affected construction work. The second part of the year and a good, even extended tourist season give us a boost. As for next year, we have set ambitious plans because our company, with the support of the group it belongs to, has the know how and broad access to markets, and we are focused on developing innovative products and processes. Some are predicting a crisis, and it is evident that some economies are slowing down, which we see best in the industrial coatings program for wood, where customers are heavily tied to the German market, and the number of orders has significantly decreased. Given that crisis is also an opportunity, we have redefined our sales strategy in that segment and turned to some market niches that have not been our focus until now.

In which direction will Chromos develop?

– A year ago, when I came to Chromos, I found a sleeping giant that was lulled into its position and somewhat weary from various battles fought over its fate, without significant investments in technology or infrastructure. One of the first steps was to form a team of people who are ready to go the extra mile that makes a difference, so my first year was marked by restructuring, which will continue next year when we will establish stable foundations for Chromos for the next 100 years. We have introduced changes in production and logistics, established departments that were missing, made a turnaround, and defined a new sales strategy tailored to today’s business conditions and market state.

Given my technical background closely related to product development and improvement of industrial production, as well as experience in opening new production facilities and introducing new technologies, this is the direction in which I plan to develop Chromos together with my team. I spent most of my career as a technical director at Klimaoprema, where I went from a small company with a low level of technological development to a company that became one of the technological leaders in cleanroom solutions and a leading European manufacturer of fire dampers. The experiences gained, along with a degree from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture crowned with an MBA from ZŠEM, and an excellent team of people are a good guarantee that we will transform Chromos into a modern company and that the giant will grow in all its glory.

In which markets are you present and where do you plan to expand?

– Currently, in addition to the domestic market, we are present in all countries of the former state and in several countries such as Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Romania, Hungary, Albania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. Every day we are expanding our sales network and presence in the European market, and this year we have strongly entered the Italian market, and we have just completed our first delivery to Israel.

What does it mean to be part of a large global system like KANSAI HELIOS within Kansai Paint?

– Being part of such a large system carries a number of advantages, from easier entry into some markets, setting the same standards for all Group members to accumulated knowledge when it comes to solving a problem. In any case, we have a group behind us that is among the top ten in the paint and coatings manufacturing sector in the world. I must especially emphasize the openness to cooperation of all colleagues and the accessibility of the Management.

What new business opportunities are opening up after the centralization of the production of interior and exterior paints in Chromos?

– This was a decision of the Group after careful analysis of our production facilities and capacities, which were partially underutilized, and the burden of production on colleagues in Slovenia. This is certainly a great incentive for our company in these turbulent times. Our company in Slovenia will direct production to some new segments and expand the current ones, while we will take over this part of production with hope and confidence that we will continue to be an equal player in the Western European market in terms of quality and all other standards, just like our colleagues.

This is a huge step and primarily opens up opportunities for the development of Chromos. To conquer the Western European market, it will be necessary to develop some new products with the help of colleagues from Slovenia, as we, as a small company entering an already established and extremely competitive market, cannot change habits but must adapt to the market.

What is the role of the Development Department in Chromos’s growth?

– I definitely see development as a competitive advantage and one of the strengths of our company. By developing new products, we have the opportunity to be one step ahead of the competition or to keep pace with the competition. The team consists of experienced engineers and technicians, and it also includes application technicians who propose solutions to customers, educate them, prepare testing, and are the extended arm of sales. It should be emphasized that we are the competence center for the entire group for: parquet lacquers, thermal insulation systems, powder materials, and polyurethane and epoxy floors, and the director of research and development for protective coatings at the group level also comes from Chromos.

How have the use of recycled packaging and the installation of solar panels affected business operations?

– At the beginning of this year, we switched to packaging made from recyclates because environmental care is one of the core values of the KANSAI HELIOS group, and with our business model, we want to reduce our environmental impact. We started with PIR (post-industrial recyclate) packaging, and by the end of the year, we will switch to PCR (post-consumer recyclate). In May, we launched a solar power plant with a capacity of 270 kW, which covers about 50 percent of our electricity needs. We are also considering other projects related to energy efficiency.

It is worth mentioning a project from last year, which is the replacement of conventional lighting with LED lighting, where, given the demands of our industry, consumption has been reduced by up to 70 percent. As part of the ‘We turn it green’ initiative since 2020, we are focusing on tangible green actions in four priority areas: people, products, procurement, and production. We strive to improve our ecological efficiency and build a carbon-neutral future both throughout the group and in Chromos.

What does Chromos’s 103-year history show?

– I would start the answer to that question with the words of our founder Bernd Moster, who said back in 1920: ‘We will produce goods only in the best qualities.’ Since then, we have been producing high-quality products and providing first-class service in the paint and coatings industry. Today, Chromos paints and coatings span 100,000 square meters of production facility in Zagreb, employing 150 people who strive daily towards a common goal: ensuring customer success through the application of our products.

The company Chromos paints and coatings has gone through numerous changes throughout its history. During World War II, it operated under the name Perunika, and in 1950 it entered the Chromos-Katran-Kutrilin combine, where it remained until the 90s when it became independent again. Dedicated and quality long-term work has yielded results, and since 2001, Chromos paints and coatings have become an integral part of Helios, consequently from 2017 also part of the Japanese group Kansai Paint, which is one of the world leaders in the coatings industry. The new market position has enabled access to global trends and the transfer of knowledge in the field of research and development. Chromos continues to maintain steady growth in these challenging times by combining global trends and best practices with local excellence.

Content provided by Chromos paints and coatings.