In 2023, the best Croatian companies broke the record for newly created value for the third consecutive time. This is one of the main conclusions in Lider’s publication ‘500 Best’, which we publish on 156 pages alongside this week’s digital and printed issue of Lider in collaboration with our data partner Dun & Bradstreet.
The Top 500 achieved 15.41 billion euros, and when the next 500 companies are added, the total is 18.41 billion! This means that the top 1000 had a share of over 40 percent of the total newly created value of all companies in Croatia last year.
This is actually about added value – which we renamed to avoid possible confusion with value-added tax (VAT), specifically the sum of gross profit and gross income of employees. This amount is an indicator of the developmental possibilities of the entire society as it encompasses everything that remains for the employer to reinvest, but also for personal consumption, all employee income for their consumption, and taxes and contributions collected and spent by the state, both central and local. Thus, this represents all consumer and investment capacity in the country, aside from EU grants and credit arrangements.
Among the top 1000, the majority of companies are from industrial sectors – 268, and they employed 26 percent of employees last year, achieving a 22 percent share in NV, and were particularly dominant in exports – even 43 percent. However, the data on industrial revenues generated abroad is likely somewhat lower due to inconsistencies among hoteliers in submitting financial reports.
Namely, some leading hoteliers report over 70 percent export share in revenues (Valamar Riviera, Plava Laguna, Maistra…), while about 20 do not record even a euro of exports, such as Adriatic Luxury Hotels, Aminess, and Sunčani Hvar, and Arena Hospitality Group reports only 69 thousand euros in export revenues. Unfortunately, total exports are 11.5 percent lower than in 2022.
Retailers were leading in revenues – achieving a 26 percent share (ahead of manufacturers with 20 percent). However, profit data stands out. The financial sector, which has only 52 representatives in the top 1000 (18 banks, 11 insurers, and 23 companies engaged in other forms of financial business), achieved as much as 26 percent of total profit, while all industrialists achieved only 18 percent share. The reason for this is the convincingly highest profitability rate – financiers reported 316 thousand euros in profit (31.6 percent) for every million euros in revenue, and particularly impressive were the best banks, with profitability of as much as 43.3 percent, which is almost ten percent higher than the 34.3 percent from the previous year.
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Tomorrow: Where would systems like Fortenova, Končar… rank among the best individual companies?
