February the 23rd, 2024 – The government finally managed to push through its highly unpopular Sunday work ban for the retail sector not so long ago, but there have been some innovative ways around it. Meet the Istrian 24/7 bread station, or Kruhomat, in Croatian.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, self-service bread machines have been installed in the settlements of Pomer, Banjole and Medulin, and soon fresh bread from the machine will also be offered in Vintijan, according to local portal The Voice of Istria/Glas Istre.
In addition to a variety of different breads, the Panissimo Istrian 24/7 bread stations, which were launched in these neighbourhoods back at the end of last year, also contain strudels and croissants, and they are filled daily.
The Pazin-based company Reginex from Grubiša delivers fresh baked products to each Istrian 24/7 bread station every morning, and by monitoring sales, they estimate the quantities needed at each location, so that fresh products are always available to customers.
Using the charming Istrian 24/7 bread station, which are currently in a number of cities, is quite simple. The products, wrapped in nylon, can be paid for by both cash and card. This means that both locals and guests of these settlements have access to fresh baked products every day, and at any time of the day, which will certainly come in handy on Sundays and over holidays when shops and bakeries are closed.
The Municipality of Medulin said that their wish was to make it easier for the locals to access basic foodstuffs, and the positive feedback indicates their satisfaction with the new service in the area.
There is an Istrian 24/7 bread station located near the bus station in Pomer, in Banjole, on Ližnjanska Cesta next to the bus station and behind the church of Our Lady of Health in the very heart of Medulin.
Having fresh, high-quality and homemade baked products at your fingertips and available 24 hours a day is the basic idea behind this move, and the very first Istrian 24/7 bread station was installed in Pazin in Istria back in the spring of 2021. It is a project and business idea from the company Reginex, an Istrian manufacturer and distributor of bakery products, which will offer its products through vending machines throughout the Istrian peninsula.
“We certainly plan to expand what we’re doing and in the short term we plan to install more of them in the areas of Pula, Poreč, Rovinj and the surrounding towns. With our bread stations, we want to offer bread that is always available for the residents of the scattered villages and municipalities in the interior of Istria, where some of them don’t even have a local store and have to travel to a neighbouring town just to buy basic groceries,” Paolo Radoš, the project manager, revealed.
