The performance of the best Croatian companies in 2024 can be viewed between two starting points. On one side are the results, which significantly exceeded the previously record-breaking year of 2023 – the newly created value (NV) increased by 15.7 percent, and Zagrebačka banka also surpassed its historically highest individual NV with 680.75 million euros, albeit by a hair – by just under 13 million euros, or by less than two percent. The productivity of companies in the top 1000 jumped by 14.6 percent, a 16 percent higher profit was reported, and the number of employees also increased by 5.1 percent, just like the previous year. Only revenues grew 3.2 percentage points more modestly than in 2023 – by 6.8 percent. However, last year was certainly very successful. This assertion is only marred by a concerning decline in exports of 6.6 percent.
Few new companies on the list
On the other hand, it seems that the best companies have entrenched themselves. This year’s list includes 79 companies that were not in the top 500 the previous year. However, among them, there are as many as 69 recidivists, who were on the list in previous years, and only ten true newcomers, rookies who are in the esteemed company for the first time. This trend is repeating for the second consecutive year – 2023 brought even fewer, only nine truly new companies. For comparison, in 2022, as many as 41 companies made the list for the first time. True, that was still a time of recovery from the pandemic in 2022, but even before the pandemic, about 20 rookies made the list each year – in 2019, there were 23. This slowdown in refreshing the list is concerning as it occurs during a time of dramatic and dizzyingly fast global changes.
The slow development of the IT sector
In recent years, numerous technological challengers and pioneers of artificial intelligence (AI) such as Perplexity AI, Codeium, Fireworks AI, PhotoRoom, Beehiiva, HeyGen have effectively entered the business scene. During this time, among the 19 rookies among the top 1000 companies in Croatia, only four from IT made it – three branches of global players – Google, Deel, and Studio – and only one in Croatian ownership. MM Games, founded by Mate Martić, specializes in developing interactive content within Fortnite Creative, a platform that allows the creation of custom games and virtual worlds based on the popular video game Fortnite. The company, which operates as a one-man band, was established in 2021, and last year it achieved 21.96 million euros in revenue and reported a gross profit of 21.35 million euros! With such an NV, it ranked 196th among the best. Even better results are achieved by the most successful domestic new company – Aircash, founded by Hrvoje Ćosić – which has been among the top 50 for the second consecutive year based on five-year growth in all six observed categories. It should be noted that this is the only company that has achieved this in terms of NV growth, productivity, revenue, exports, profit, and number of employees.
