The owner provides free loans to his workers, and some even do not have to repay them.
Đuro Horvat, the owner of the Tehnix company from Međimurje, opted for an unusual move and has liberated his workers from banks and frozen bank accounts. He has decided to use part of his company’s profits to provide loans to employees. Smaller loans are eventually forgiven and never returned, while larger loans are provided with extended repayment periods and no interest, reports Novac.hr on May 30, 2018.
“This is our contribution to stabilizing the situation and stopping people from emigrating to Ireland or Germany. We are an environmental, social and moral company, and we are happy that the move has been well-received by the public. We have not copied this model from anyone else, but we have introduced it because it is in the interest of us and those workers overburdened with debts who come to work here from elsewhere. We have offered them to repay their debts and increase their salaries. If there is no one else, then we have to solve this problem. It is in our interest to keep people here and make them happy because only a satisfied worker can perform a good job. We have a lot of orders, and we need people who will not worry about debts,” said Horvat.
He added that future employees who come to work for his company would also receive similar financial aid. “We monitor the workers who come to us and, while paying them their salaries, we can see whether their bank accounts have been frozen by the bank. If they have, then we help them,” said the owner of Tehnix, one of the European leaders in the environmental industry.
The company currently employs more than 450 people, with the average salary of about 1200 euro. Horvat does not want to brag about how much money he has allocated for the loans but merely says that more than 250,000 kuna has been distributed.
That does not pose any problem for their business activities, which are continually growing. Last year, they recorded 238.3 million kuna in revenues and 17.5 million kuna in profits. This year, the production has further increased by 20 percent. They recently realised a significant investment and this month opened a new production plant, which will grow the number of employees to about 600.
“We do not feel the financial burden of loans provided to the employees. We have signed contracts with our customers, and the company has great potential. It exports more than 80 percent of the production, about three million euro just this month. We just signed a new two million euro contract yesterday,” he said.
By helping workers, the company also helps itself. “People just need to be motivated. The company is worth as much as its market is worth, which means you must have good products and good workers. That is the recipe for success,” concluded Horvat.
Translated from Novac.hr (reported by Jasmina Trstenjak).
