Railway signaling manufacturer Altpro slowly becomes a prophet in its own village

This year, Altpro marks its 30th anniversary since its founding, and in the meantime, it has grown into a leading company in Southeast Europe specializing in safety signaling systems in railway infrastructure and on railway vehicles. The order book for 2025 is already full, making it much clearer why this year (in April or May) the investment in a new production facility (two are in Zagreb’s Odra) covering 3500 m2 in Velika Gorica will be completed. As stated on the company’s official website, ‘this important investment will mark a new era in development that will allow Altpro to venture into new business and development directions.’

We wanted to discuss this and much more with the founder Zvonimir Viduka, but he did not find time for us, noting that some questions are unacceptable because Altpro ‘is closely monitored by competitors.’ It’s a pity, otherwise, whenever we hear from him, he always invites us to drop by and see the facilities, but now… His offices are decorated with various certificates from around the world, and while he speaks, it is evident that he is a worldly man, knowledgeable about production and markets… He is actually a very pleasant conversationalist, but now he wouldn’t chat.

Heart in the right place

The production niche consists of train detection systems, systems for securing railway-road crossings, and ATP systems for automatic train stopping based on INDUSI technology. The investment in Velika Gorica will increase production capacity as well as the number of employees. At the end of February, Viduka stated for Poslovni dnevnik (PD) that this is the largest railway electronics facility in Southeast Europe, located in the former warehouse space of PHOENIX Pharmaceuticals, and that the investment is worth eight million euros. It is financed with funds from HBOR, and the guarantor was HAMAG-BICRO. This is the third investment cycle in 12 years, and it will produce as many as 1500 products, ‘among which are those that have no competition on a global level.’

The reason for this investment is the exceptional growth of orders from around the world (from more than 50 countries on six continents), but also from Croatia, which is finally good news considering that Altpro had much more difficulty obtaining jobs from domestic clients, primarily HŽ Infrastruktura, until just two years ago. Viduka did not send us data on last year’s operations, but from the numbers he provided to PD, we could indirectly estimate revenue. Namely, due to the growth of orders, revenue increased by 57 percent last year. It is unclear from the text whether this refers to revenue (including VAT) or net income (excluding VAT), but we can comfortably estimate that revenue rose to over 21 million euros, given that in 2022 it was 14.2 million euros.

However, it is a valuable export company whose exports grew by 33 percent last year compared to 2022, meaning its value was between 12 and 13 million euros. This aligns with our revenue estimate and Viduka’s data that the value of exports was about 60 percent of revenue. Although export revenue has grown, its share in total revenue, as noted by Lider’s financial expert Nikola Nikšić, has been declining in recent years. The year before last, exports were 9.2 million euros (1.1 million euros more than in 2021), and even then, the share in total revenue fell to 70 percent, unlike previous years when it was over 80 percent. This is a consequence of the aforementioned increased demand in Croatia, and since we have previously followed this company, we can say that Viduka’s heart is now in the right place, as he was not the happiest with the amount of work in the country, despite the fact that Altpro’s solutions were sought after globally.

This year, however, a revenue growth of 30 percent is planned, based on the order book, which, as we have already mentioned, is filled for this and next year.

What are the most interesting projects Altpro is working on and what are its main export markets? Read the rest of the company story available in the new issue of the printed and digital edition of Lider.