Croit

Background
The Croit Company was founded in 1995 as a joint venture of foreign and Croatian investors. The companys main business involves distribution, wholesale and representing manufactures of toys, giftware and seasonal articles. The offer of similar goods on the Croatian market between 1995 and 1999 was not vast, and business competition was just. Due to those circumstances, Croits growth was over 25% a year. Since that was a great period for business the company extended its sales network by opening new warehouses in Zagreb, Rijeka, Zadar, and Osijek. In that way, all of Croatia became the potential market for the company.
With that kind of growth, the number of employees grew and with it, the expenses of doing business grew also. At one point the merchandise imported from ... Italy started to be too expensive, and Croit could not construct a price to compete on the market. The other possible sources of those kinds of goods are Asian countries, so Croits management decided to import goods from the Far East. New suppliers were found in China, Hong Kong, Pakistan and Taiwan. This kind of practice was not supported by the Italian partner, and after a series of meetings they reached a decision. They agreed upon a price and the Croatian partner took over the Italian partners part of the company. The demographic of the company is very interesting, because Croit management decided to employ mostly young people. Average age of the croit employees is 28-30 and there is a similar number of male and female moslty married.
From that moment growth of the company is faster, mostly thanks to the better import prices, faster and independent leadership, decision making and better finalizing of sales. The whole decision making process was maximally simplified. The result was that Croit became one of the leading suppliers of these kinds of goods in the Croatian market. The next step in development of the company was widening the market. To accomplish that, Croits warehouses were opened in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Tivat, Serbia and Montenegro. The expansion on the foreign market was careful and the companys management wanted the knowledge and the experience gained in Croatia transferred to Croits subsidiaries in the right manner. They succeeded in their mission and those branches started to give the first positive results.
Croit now has its own warehouse capacities in Split, Rijeka, Zagreb and Sarajevo with a capacity of more than 20000 m. It has leased warehouses in Zadar, Osijek and Tivat. The warehouses in Ljubljana and Belgrade are just starting to work, and in that way Croit is going to become a leading provider of toys on the market of former Yugoslavia. All of the vehicles that are crucial for the operating of the business are in the companys ownership. Croit d.o.o. employs 140 workers in four states. The mission and vision of the company is to become a competent and a correct business partner and supplier to all leading customers in that branch of the business.
The company is divided into two major parts: the management office, the wholesale centres. The management office includes import, a design office and a development office. The transport and warehousing sectors, financial sector and general business sectors are also the part of the business that the management office deals with. Finally marketing and sales are also handled by the same office. The wholesale centres deal with sales, warehousing, transport and other related business.
On the territory of former Yugoslavia, Croit has nine business centres which have sales offices consisting of a director of the centre and a field salesman and all of the other staff needed to operate and to provide the best possible service for our partners. Every one of them has his area of work, and on that area they are visiting customers and agreeing upon the sale of goods. Their assignment is to check the offer and the prices of the competition. An interactive relationship is very important because it provides the environment in which the needed information for the import office and main sales office flows fast.
The import sector is the heart of the company because it assures good selection of merchandise, at reasonable prices. Cooperation between import and the sales office is one of the most important parts of the business. In order for Croits items to be recognized among many others on the shelves, Croit products have its own design. The packaging of the product, as well as the logo of the company, and the colors of the packaging are characteristics for only the Croit Company. The department that takes care of that is the design and development department. Employees who work there make sure that the looks, packaging, text, and color of the product are such to improve sales of a certain product. Other important assignments of this department are designing and organizing the production of catalogues, leaflets, CD presentations and TV promotions. This department is filled with mostly young people who speak two or three foreign languages fluently.
The sector for warehousing and transport is responsible for everything that is imported, contracted or sold; it also must see that everything arrives on time to the buyers addresses. In Croit we consider that logistics is very important and that assuring the best place for your goods on the shelf of every store means that there will be no place for others (competition). In that way, the chances for selling merchandise are better.
There are the factors on which developing possibilities abroad are based. The first of these factors is that Croit has a leading position on this kind of market in Croatia. That is very important because the company is stabile and reputable. That information also shows that there is a potential for the company to became a leader in that branch of business in bordering countries and even beyond. Croits product and name is already known because of this, and people who work on key positions in the company already know who their potential customers are. The other good thing about this is that Croit proved to be a good supplier of big multinational companies which opened branches in Croatia (Getro, Metro, Coop, Interspar, Billa, and Mediator and many others), and all of them are already supplied by Croit on the markets where the company operates. Import of goods is also a part of the business in which Croit is in front of its competition. When importing, Croits method is to deal with serious companies who have good backgrounds in their land of origin. Since Croit is one of the first companies that started to import these kinds of goods in Southeast Europe, we are proud to say that they have been cooperating with some of their Chinese partners for more than nine years. In the last period the company accomplished pole position in the segment of selling toys, and established good business relationships with its customers. This position allows Croit to dictate the market. After going international the segment of export of Croit has a yearly growth of 30% and it will represent the main path for the future of the company. These are all important advantages of the Croit Company, and this year Croit is starting to export some of its products on the Eastern European Markets (ex: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. Read more