As Poslovni Dnevnik/Sergej Novosel Vuckovic writes, recently, the often overlooked Croatian town of Ogulin gained the attention of the domestic public due to the decision of the Swedish company Pervanovo Invest AB, owned by Croat Darko Pervan, to build a floor covering factory there, worth 200 million euros. The factory would become the largest in the world, but this isn’t the only foreign investment to arrive in Ogulin.
Recently, the GroMar Polish e-learning platform announced that it was looking for 2D graphic artists/animators/illustrators to work in Ogulin, in its branch there. GroMar is otherwise a leader in education and digitalisation projects when it comes to employee education and development, which they’ve been engaged in for more than 20 years.
The GroMar Polish e-learning platform is headquartered in Lodz, the third largest city in Poland, and the company was ranked among the fastest-growing 25 technology companies in the CEE region last year, according to Deloitte. The fourth quarter of 2020 was their best, and in pre-pandemic 2019, their revenues reached 17 million zlotys (about 28.8 million kuna in total ). Among their clients are giants like Suzuki, Tesco, Pepco, DPD, and various Polish institutions and public companies.
Their main product is LearnWay, and Marcin Pisarski, the founder, sole owner and CEO of GroMar, describes it as a fully customisable e-learning platform with an unlimited number of functionalities.
“LearnWay is actually a complete set of tools for professionals in the field of human resources and e-learning. In addition to the platform itself, we also provide our clients with online training sessions, we create and design each of the platforms ourselves.
From online employment, through boarding systems, personal and professional development programmes, online education editing, online course databases, all the way to corporate communication tools and employer banding,” Pisarski told Poslovni dnevnik.
He admits that they were somehow ”brought” to Ogulin by Natalia Zielinska, a Polish entrepreneur living in Ogulin who is an expert on EU projects and is also the owner of EuroGrant Consulting. But what else was decisive besides the Polish “connection”?
“We met in 2019 and we liked the open approach and desire for cooperation. Ogulin is only an hour from Zagreb and Rijeka and is directly connected to Split. Since back in 2015, we’ve had a subsidiary of Gro-Mar d.o.o., and in 2017 we took over the company Horizont IT.
Several entrepreneurial stories are developing in Ogulin, including those which involve foreign investments, which has further encouraged us, and it isn’t without significance that the local government is reducing tax liabilities such as surtax, which we recognise as positive. Undoubtedly, a very important role was played by my colleague Natalia, she emphasised all the advantages of business development in smaller places,” pointed out the leader of the GroMar Polish e-learning platform.
For them, the key Polish national project at the moment is the educational platform epodreczniki.pl (e-textbook), which is used by the entire Polish public education system due to the pandemic and the need for distance learning. This platform enjoys millions of users per month and offers thousands of pieces of material for children, parents and teachers.
“It’s a great challenge and a turning point in the development of our company,” noted Pisarski, adding that they will soon launch a campaign about LearnWay in European countries, including Croatia, and the contribution of Croatian employees is important to them. The plan is to have about 50 of them in total.
“We want to create platforms for education, content, training and online material based on Polish technologies, but with a Croatian soul and elegance added to them. That’s why we need local experts, thanks to whom we’ll have the prerequisite for the synergy of our know-how and skills and local spirit and culture. We’ll create effective educational projects for schools, universities and companies,” said Pisarski.
This Polish entrepreneur is optimistic about doing business in a small Croatian town and intends to hire more people. “Definitely. We have in our hands a comprehensive strategy for entering the Croatian market. It will not be a fast sprint, but a marathon in the long run. Our ultimate goal is an independent and self-sufficient branch of the GroMar Polish e-learning platform here in Croatia. We have the financial means to do so and we’re ready for such investments. We’ll definitely need experts from different fields, not only IT experts and graphic designers,” Pisarski revealed.
For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily.
Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language – now available in 24 languages.
Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.
