As Novac/Jutarnji/Jozo Vrdoljak writes, on Friday, March the 11th, the new Croatian Post logistics centre will open in the Kukuljanovo industrial zone. The new Bakar-Kukuljanovo business facility, worth a massive 60 million kuna, will have a total area covering almost 5,000 square metres as well as its own solar power plant. More than 300 employees of Croatian Post will work at that location. This investment, with which Croatian Post will complete all of its round of investments in infrastructure, created the proper preconditions for further logistical growth and development of the company itself, but also laid a good foundation for the development of the entire Croatian logistics market.
”The location of the new facility is crucial for raising the level of quality and all logistics work, and the new Croatian Post business facility will be located in a place with very good traffic connections. The facility is close to the Rijeka – Zagreb motorway and the Kvarner road, and the centre of Rijeka is only 10 kilometres away. The Kukuljanovo business facility, which will centralise operations with as many as five locations, is an important link in raising the quality and speed of providing services to all residents who gravitate to this area. This is a link for the raising of the quality and speed of providing services to all residents who gravitate to this area – Gorski kotar, Istria and Kvarner,” stated Ivan Culo, the president of Croatian Post.
A five-year investment cycle
Over the past five years, Croatian Post has conducted an investment cycle amount to almost one billion kuna in total. In addition to investments in digitalisation, significant funds have been invested in expanding their existing facilities and building new logistics capacities. In addition to investing in Kukuljanovo, their logistics space in Osijek was expanded, a new logistics centre was built in Zadar, capacities were expanded in Bjelovar and a new sorting centre was built in Velika Gorica near Zagreb, which is the largest capital investment in Croatian Post’s entire history. The new sorting centre was opened back in 2021 and is the largest capital investment in the history of Croatian Post, worth an enormous 350 million kuna.
”Infrastructural investments in the network of our sorting plants will have a favourable effect on the overall development of the logistics market across Croatia. All of the locations of modern sorting plants are strategically selected and are located in areas that are well connected in terms of traffic and are in line with logistics trends. Previously, such facilities were located in the centres of large cities, and today they’re placed on the outskirts along important traffic routes. The number of locations where the operational part of the shipment business, such as sorting and processing, is performed has now decreased. In Zagreb, business with four locations was moved to the new sorting centre, while in Kukuljanovo the business with five locations is centralised,” explained Culo, noting that the logistics sector had to find a solution to the e-commerce explosion in a short time and radically change established ways of meeting the varying needs of both private and business users.
”It’s enough to look at record traffic, as well as at delays in ports all over the world, which are part of the wider crisis of global supply chains. Solutions exist, but they aren’t cheap or quick. Smart investments are proving to be the key to success, as the rapid growth of e-commerce and package business, as one of the consequences of the pandemic, has shown just how important investments in technology and infrastructure truly are. Fortunately, we don’t have to look for good examples outside of Croatian borders, because this one state-owned company in the coronavirus pandemic showed how to transform business operations in the short term and adapt to the new normal,” explained Culo.
Culo also made sure to emphasise that Croatian Post, with this, its largest investment cycle in history, started several years before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
”Experience has shown that companies that were in the upward trajectory of their investment cycle were ready for the challenges presented by the pandemic, and there are many examples of companies that have further strengthened during the crisis. For years, modern logistics companies have been relocating their capacities from urban centres to locations close to well-connected cities. Such is the case with this new Croatian Post logistics centre, but it isn’t the only modern sorting plant owned by us. Users will feel the results of that investment through an even better service and a guarantee that their turn towards e-commerce will be successfully monitored by the company. A large number of packages arriving every day is nothing new to operational workers, and everything that arrives at the sorting plant continues on the same day towards its final destination,” said Culo, adding that with the growth of the package business, reverse logistics is becoming more and more important.
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