Specialists Bozidar Coric (l) and Mladen Bocek have carried out audits of several pressure vessels and pipes in the INA refinery at Sisak, Croatia, 2012.
TÜV Croatia has now been around for 20 years and has experienced both highs and lows during this period. Notwithstanding the fraught economic situation in the country, Dr Đuro Tunjić, General Manager of TÜV Croatia, takes an optimistic view of the future. “We want to create services for tourism.” And tourism generates some 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The company is involved in two new IT projects with the state financial agency FINA and one of the largest banks in the country, ZABA. Moreover, the vehicle valuation business with TÜV NORD Mobilität is slowly taking shape.
In future, TÜV Croatia intends to work more closely with some of the TÜV NORD GROUP companies in the region. The spotlight here is on Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and the Czech Republic. Dr Đuro Tunjić hopes to derive fresh impetus from BOLD MOVE. He would like in the future to divide his company into three profit centres: system certifications, food/agriculture, and production technology.
Back in 1997, the company started off with a principal focus on QM certifications. However, it was also looking to offer technical services for many of the Balkan states. The company’s main office in Slavonski Brod was favourably located close to the borders with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia. Although the firm was slow out of the starting blocks, it grew by taking on further fields of activity such as tests and seminars for welders. It also got involved in the food sector early on. Croatia’s accession to the EU in 2013 required the company to offer new services such as certifications in accordance with the pressure equipment directive. TÜV Croatia was the first notified body in the country in this segment, Dr Tunjić recalls.
The main problem currently faced by the company is the protracted economic slump in Croatia. In 2015, the country’s GDP grew for the first time after six years of recession, but the economy has been suffering from deflation since 2014. The public sector is heavily in debt, and youth unemployment is high. “Our customers are currently struggling, including the state petroleum company INA: all its projects have been suspended,” Dr Tunjić reports. There is virtually no investment in the country, a state of affairs which is having an effect on the testing business.
As most of the clients are now based in Zagreb, the company headquarters relocated there in 2012: 40 percent of Croatian companies have their headquarters in the city, alongside the government ministries. Another advantage is that the southern regions of Istria and Dalmatia are much more easily accessible than they were from Slavonski Brod in the east of the country.
The company’s 40 staff are now mainly involved in the certification of quality, environmental, occupational health and safety and hygiene management, with forays into testing in accordance with the pressure equipment directive. Its most important clients include Lidl, Spar, FINA, INA and locomotive and carriage builder Duro Dakovic, the co-founder of TÜV Croatia.
Introducing TÜV Croatia
Founded in 1997 in Slavonski Brod by RWTÜV, Duro Dakovic, Ekonerg and Prof. Zvonimir Lukacevic.
Completely owned by RWTÜV since 2002.
Headquarters since 2012: Zagreb.
Number of employees: 40 – of which 14 in Zagreb, 19 in Slavonski Brod, 2 in Rijeka; 4 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1 in Slovenia.
Turnover: € 3.5 million.