October 19 (SeeNews) - Croatian bakery chain Mlinar, controlled by UK-based private equity firm Mid Europa Partners, remained the largest company in the sector in the country in terms of profit, revenue, exports and number of employees in 2019, Croatia's financial agency, Fina, said.
Mlinar generated 693 million kuna ($107 million/91 million euro) in revenue last year, accounting for 14.4% of the overall revenue of Croatia's bread and baking goods sector in 2019, Fina said in a statement last week.
The company reported 72.7 million kuna in net profit and exports of more than 49 million kuna for last year. It employed 1,538 people at the end of 2019.
For comparison, the second largest bakery chain, Pan-Pek, reported a total revenue of 270 million kuna, a 19.4 million kuna net profit and exports worth 12 million kuna. It employed 700 people in 2019.
Last week, Polish Enterprise Fund VII (PEF VII), a private equity fund managed by Enterprise Investors (EI), said it signed an agreement to acquire the remaining 35% stake in Pan-Pek from its founder, Ivan Parac, thus becoming a full owner of the Croatian company.
PEF VII bought its current stake of 65% in Pan-Pek in May 2018.
The third largest bakery in Croatia in 2019 was Zagrebacke Pekarne Klara with a total revenue of 190 million kuna, a 1.4 million kuna net profit, exports worth 3.7 million kuna and 602 employees.
Fina also said that an overall 917 bakeries were active in Croatia last year, reporting a total revenue of 4.8 billion kuna, up 5.8% compared to 2018. Of them, 628 companies reported profit, while the remaining 289 operated at a loss.
The sector's consolidated profit rose 7.3% to 167.6 million kuna last year, while the value of combined exports increased 28% to 180 million kuna.
The top ten bakery firms generated 43% of the sector's combined revenue and 158 million kuna of the sector's total exports last year.
(1 euro = 7.58302 kuna)