The Karlovac-based HS Produkt firearms manufacturer was awarded the 2017 Golden Balance Award by the Financial Agency (Fina), winning the title of the most successful company overall per 2017 financial ratings, and Croatia's most successful manufacturing company in 2017.
The Golden Balance Award is awarded to the most successful businesses in each of several industry sectors, based on rankings calculated from 11 financial indicators in five categories – profitability, liquidity, debt, business activities, and economic efficiency.
HS Produkt is EU’s second largest exporter of handguns to the US market, second only to Austria’s Glock. It also produces assault rifles used by the Croatian Army.
More than 3,700 Croatian enterprises were selected by Fina to compete for the award, around two thirds of which were small-sized businesses.
During the award ceremony, FINA presented the financial results achieved by Croatian enterprises in 2017 and announced that their consolidated net profit totalled 21.9 billion kuna (€3 billion), an increase of 8.5 percent over 2016.
This data relates to more than 120,000 profit tax-paying enterprises, excluding banks, insurance and other financial institutions. Of that number, around two thirds (or nearly 81,000) enterprises ended the year in the black.
According to Fina’s data, the total revenue generated by Croatian enterprises last year increased by 9.5 percent to 678.4 billion kuna (€92 billion). In addition to higher revenue and profits, Croatian companies also increased the total number of employees by 5.2 percent to about 883,000 workers.
Their value of exports also grew, by 16.6 percent, to 137.8 billion kuna (€18.7 billion). The greatest increase in exports was achieved by micro-enterprises, whose exports jumped by 49.6 percent, to more than 10.1 billion kuna (€1.3 billion).
Last year the number of businesses also grew by about 5,000 than in 2016, with private investments also increasing by about 7 percent.
(€1 = 7.38 kuna)
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