Family Business Slovenia 2020

There are few people in Slovenia who have not heard of Agromehanika which, as its name suggests, manufactures agricultural machinery. The company originated in 1986 and today it is still led by the second generation of the family. Based in Kranj, it is one of the leading manufacturers of agricultural mechanization in central and southeastern Europe. As much as 90% of their products are exported to more than 30 countries, not only in Europe but also in other continents (although the USA remains unconquered), especially in the last few years. Last year, the company received the Gorenjska Gazela regional award for fast growing enterprises. They employ more than 150 people and in 2019 achieved revenues of €22 million, also maintaining net profitability, which has been a feature of most of the company’s history.

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Jure Tomič, born in 1981 in the town of Brežice,is the Head Chef and the man behind the idea of Oštarija Debeluh restaurant. In all respects, Jure is the most important person in what has become one of Slovenia’s best restaurants, in the process gaining the attention of the two most prestigious restaurant guides, the Michelin Guide and the Gault & Millau. In 2020, Jure received the Michelin Plate award, but this was far from his first international recognition. His clientele also has an international character, with most of his guests coming from Croatia and Serbia. “Food is my passion,” says Jure, which explains a lot about his success.

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Few family businesses survive their transfer to a third generation, as has been successfully achieved by the Čarman family. Gašper Čarman, a member od the third generation, is the Director of eVino. “eVino began in 2005, during deliberations between a physical or online store, and so the first online wine shop was born,” he recalls. Last year, eVino saw €5 million in revenue and more than €450,000 of net profit. Gašper and his sister Nina also co-own the eVino Danilo company, which manages the restaurant that ignited the family business success story.

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From a difficult inception in 1995 and having undergone three significant challenges, the Evrosad group has come to own more than 500 hectares of land. Their annual output of around 20,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables represents roughly a third of Slovenia’s entire production. They chiefly export apples to large retail chains and specialized fruit wholesalers in 18 countries, 13 of which are in the EU and six in the Middle East. The story of Evrosad from Krško began with Ivan Kozole and is today continued by his son, Boštjan Kozole, who sees only challenges rather than obstacles in his path.

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Amid the flood of industrially prepared food, people have begun to appreciate homemade, locally-produced meals and to seek out traditional dishes and tastes. The Consult Commerce and Fine Culinar companies from Gorenjska supply predominantly frozen products, inspired by traditional recipes and made from local ingredients. Harking back to the ways of our grandmothers, such an unhurried approach to cooking usually has no place in our hectic modern lifestyle. The two successful companies, led by the Cerkovnik family from the town of Tržič, have the same owners and directors and can be seen as two sides of the same coin. They also share the same guiding philosophy: to offer customers good, healthy, nutritious, high-quality, traditional and tasty Slovenian food. What then is the difference between them? In short, Fine Culinar produces the range of largely frozen products and Consult Commerce sells them.

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For centuries, business transactions could only be recorded using paper. Development of IT caused a business revolution so that today it is no longer a question of whether a company should implement an e-business system; paperless business has become an imperative. The only real remaining question is how to implement efficient and holistic IT solutions, allowing companies to focus on the tasks that bring them added value. Genis has been searching for answers to this question for more than a quarter of a century.

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The two generations of the Brence family are writing a successful entrepreneurial story for the Pustotnik Farm with their business niche of cheesemaking. The father, Milan Brence, took over a traditional farm with 500 years of family history at the age of only 24. “My wife and I understood from the very beginning that we had to develop two separate units: a traditional farm and a company to lead us toward a variety of interesting opportunities.” The Pustotnik Farm as a company had over €960,000 net sales revenue last year, almost €26,000 net profit and nine employees. This year, despite the pandemic, those employees have increased to 12.

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The Mertik family from Brezovica pri Ljubljani has lived and breathed their family business, MI Elektronika, for a good three decades. Now one of the largest EMS providers of printed circuit board (PCB) assemblies in Slovenia, the company began as Ignac Mertik’s side business in the 1980s. Around two years ago, he passed the reigns to his daughter Sonja, who has followed in his footsteps with great success.

Today the family enterprise employs 50 people and last year they made €7 million in revenue with €1.5 million profit. Their plans, which include employing around 200 additional people in the next 10 years, are ambitious but realistic, considering the company’s dynamic revenue growth of over 250% in the past five years.

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The Rast Tim family enterprise found its market niche in delivering crates of fruit and vegetables to companies promoting healthy eating among their employees. The e-Branjevka online store processes orders, which exploded for home deliveries during the coronavirus pandemic.

Seven years ago the Grm brothers, Tadej and Gregor, took control of the company, which now involves their mother Zdenka, father Marko and Tadej’s wife Sonja. The parents were there to help from the very beginning; mother in her spare time, as she had a full-time job, and father fully involved in logistics. The Grm brothers have forged an excellent team and are now reaping the rewards of their determination. They supply a daily dose of vitamins to around 250 companies, or more than 20,000 employees. They do not hide their ambition to expand their deliveries of fruit and vegetables beyond Slovenia’s borders and into neighboring markets.

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The Avsenik name is more than just a synonym for folk music. It embodies a company and a family in which hospitality services are deeply intertwined with music, event organization and tourist services. From beginnings as the Jožovc restaurant, the family venue grew into an event hall with concerts for up to 350 people, with the number of visitors even higher during the Avsenik Festival. Before the coronavirus crisis the company employed 20 people but now they are starting again. In the future the entrepreneurial success of Gregor and Katarina Avsenik will be continued by their children, Sašo, Aleš, Nataša, Monika and Primož.

Discover their story here.