As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes on the 7th of August, 2020, the Zadar-based company Pelagos net farma, co-owned by Croatian General Ante Gotovina, as a major tuna exporter, is also coming into focus due to its investment-related plans.
Ante Gotovina’s company claims that it hasn’t really suffered as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the devastating effect it has had on the global economy. Given the company’s annual report, it seems that despite this new situation in which we all find ourselves and in which many companies are struggling and even going bust, they are in fact facing a new wave of investments, which, in addition to the well-established tuna business in the Balabra farm near Murter, intends to expand into the area of blue fish.
According to the annual report of the Management Board for 2019, signed by President Nenad Horvat and member of the Management Board Leo Mandic, Pelagos net farma will continue to modernise its business throughout the remainder of the year 2020, with the aim of increasing efficiency and improving the achieved results, regardless of the difficult economic situation that has taken hold.
However, in addition to new investments in the continuation of the modernisation of business processes, additional investments are planned regarding the purchase of new ships for Ante Gotovina’s company.
While one vessel will be used for mariculture work, the other will be involved in catching small blue fish. The amount of investment in question isn’t specified in the report, so it remains to be seen in practice the pace of investment as well as the relationship with the plant that the company already has for processing anchovies with a maximum capacity of 1000 tonnes.
Former General Ante Gotovina’s company is doing well and boasts a respectable number of employees – there were 106 at the end of 2019, and at the same time, the company is reaching its maximum profit levels, thus achieving close to 8 million kuna in net profit, which marks an encouraging 10 percent growth when compared to the previous year. Back in 2019, the company realised impressive total revenues amounting to 74 million kuna, ie 35 percent more than was realised in 2018.
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