In five years, the company had revenue growth of 9 to a massive 36 million kuna, with HBOR playing a significant role.
To struggle for each and every customer is hard work, as every entrepreneur knows, but breaking into the foreign market, with different customs, rules and language barriers, is a special kind of challenge indeed.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of May, 2018, the company in question is Croatia’s well known Trgovišće Textile Factory (TTT), whose tablecloths and napkins decorate the tables and can be found on the bedding of some of the most expensive hotels in Europe, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland, as well as further afield in Canada, the USA, and of course, right here in Croatia.
Back in 2012, the company, which now employs 85 workers and still supports 30 jobs at its suppliers, almost went bankrupt owing to the collapse of its biggest Italian customer. This was also a turning point in business when the company decided to look for other foreign buyers and rely on the welcome help of the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR), whose export finance and payment instruments have been used regularly.
“Over the past five years, we’ve achieved revenue growth of 9 to 36 million kuna, and HBOR has played a significant role in our success through various forms of financing,” says the director of TTT, Mario Popić.
Today, 70 percent of the company’s revenue is generated by exports alone. Around one-third of their products go to the largest domestic (Croatian) hotel names like Plava Laguna (Blue Lagoon), Maistre, Blue Sun… With a third going elsewhere in Europe, such as to England, with the famous Ritz London hotel on Piccadilly boasting their bedding. The rest of the company’s promising revenue was earned across the rest of the world, mostly in other European countries in addition to the United Kingdom, such as Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, and Iceland.
The question that remains is just how did this Croatian company, once one the very brink of bankruptcy, manage to break into the textile industry on a world scale, where the infamously unmerciful Asian competition is at least half the price?
“We have our own ”premium” product, with which we aim for the most developed markets which have high purchasing power. Everyone goes for quantity and low price, we’re all about quality,” stated Popić.
Cheaper bedding from the Far East can take about twenty washes before it starts to lost its charm and become deformed, whereas theirs can last more than 150 washes, meaning that hotels do initially pay double the price, but ultimately save up to seven times in the longterm.
The newest buyer from New York in the United States, with a huge 70,000-euro order in the first quarter of this year, has been funded by development bank (HBOR) instruments.
“With HBOR’s credit, amounting to 750,000 euro, we managed to fund our total export business, worth 1,235 million euro. The loan was for the preparation of exports with an interest rate of 3 percent,” Popić noted.
“That made it easier for us to conclude the job. We can give the buyer good conditions, we don’t require advance payment, and we’re as flexible as the competition. The billing guarantee allows us to behave as if we’re at home, to treat the English customer like a domestic one, and ultimately dedicate ourselves to the business we’re dealing with. So that’s how we’ve achieved such good growth,” concluded the ”first man” of Trgovišće Textile Factory, Mario Popić, on the story of its very welcome recovery and success.
Click here for the original article by PD and VL native tim for Poslovni Dnevnik
