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“Let’s meet“ by Fortenova Group and its partner, the Communication Office Colić, Laco and Partners, won the bronze Grand PRix of the Croatian Public Relations Association (HUOJ) in the category of Internal Communication Projects, and in the category Integrated Communication Project the bronze Grand PRix was awarded to Konzum’s project “Little Big Talents”.
In the overall competition of 70 projects, the annual awards of the communication industry in Croatia were assigned in nine categories, and the announcement of the winners and the presentation ceremony of the 17th Grand PRix took place on Monday, 22nd April 2024.
“Let’s meet“ is a project intended to foster professional and private bonding among colleagues from Fortenova Group’s regional retail through encounters of several days in each of the five countries – Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro – where the Group’s retail companies operate.
A different kind of bonding and acting together was made possible by “Little Big Talents” for all Konzum customers, who were able to take part, by donating the coupons collected, in purchasing equipment for elementary and middle schools of their choice, all with a view to helping school children learn and develop their talents.
A big thank you and congrats to all colleagues involved in the realization of these projects as well as to all winners.
Zvijezda mayonnaise is again No. 1 at the BRANDscore list in Croatia, as confirmed by the BRANDpuls* survey that investigates brand strength among domestic consumers. According to the survey conducted for H2 2023, Zvijezda mayonnaise has for the second consecutive year made it to the very top of the list comprising as many as 1456 brands, and ranking among the Top 10 brands on the Croatian market there are another three Zvijezda products – sunflower oil as runner-up, Zvijezda Ketchup ranking seventh and Zvijezda hard table margarine as No. 8.
As in the year before, among the Top 10 there is also Jamnica, ranking fourth this year, with Fortenova Group companies thus featuring five brands at the top of one of the region’s largest market surveys.
At the same time, on the extended list comprising Croatia’s top 50 strongest products, ABC cheese ranked 13th and Margo spreadable margarine as No. 16 have improved their positions, while Jana still water ranks 21st.
When it comes to the regional placement, Fortenova Group’s strongest brands are Jana as No. 18 and Jana Ice Tea ranked 35th. At the same time, the rankings in other countries of the region show that in Serbia, similar to Croatia, the Group’s strongest brands are the products of Dijamant – Dobro jutro margarine (No. 4), Dijamant edible oil (No. 5), and Dijamant classic hard margarine (ranking 9th), while ABC cheese has scored a high position as No. 4 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The BRANDscore survey, conducted on 5600 respondents aged 16 to 64 in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia, who ranked the brands in around 60 FMCG categories, has confirmed that the consumers are strongly connected to Zvijezda and Dijamant products that form the Edible Oils Group at Fortenova Group, which makes them the strongest local brands, particularly with regard to global brands that typically rank high at Adria region level.
In the competition of large companies from Central and Southeast Europe, the International Economic Forum ‘Perspectives’ and the company ‘Promo Global’ awarded Fortenova grupa d.d. with the Golden Award and the ‘Regional ESG Leader’ acknowledgement for the year 2023 in the Overall ESG Achievements category.
The awards in four categories – Environmental Protection, Positive Impact on the Society, Ethical Management and Overall ESG Achievements in 2023 – were presented to the best entrepreneurs and companies as part of the three-day 9th Regional Entrepreneurs’ Summit – Top 300, held in Zagreb on the occasion of the World Entrepreneurs’ Day on 5th March.
On behalf of Fortenova Group, the award was accepted by Marina Burazer, Group Director of Marketing and ESG, who said on this occasion: “I am grateful that Fortenova Group’s efforts in the area of sustainability have been recognized, given all our ongoing activities and projects. Over the last two years we have, at Group level, strategically focused on considering the ESG aspect in order to improve our own operations and clearly define common goals in the areas of reducing emissions, efficient waste management, affecting the quality of life through the quality of food, reducing impact on soil and water, achieving gender equality and positively contributing to the communities in which we operate. Our thank you goes to all Group employees, who actively participate in achieving Fortenova Group’s sustainability goals and implementing all initiatives with a positive impact on the society.”
Deciding on the winners among candidates from 8 countries (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, Northern Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia), there was an independent International Expert Council, and about their decision the Chairwoman of the Council, Prof. Majda Tafra Vlahović, PhD, university professor and certified professional sustainability expert of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), among other things said: “Your commitment to integrating ESG principles into your company’s operational structure has not only set an outstanding corporate responsibility standard, but also demonstrated significant advantages of such practices. While paying you tribute with this Award, we believe that we will witness your company’s pioneering strategies initiate a wave of positive transformation in the corporate landscape, proving that the commitment to ESG values is not only useful, but necessary in order to drive a sustainable and equitable future for all.”
At Google’s best known conference – Google Next 2023 in San Francisco, Fortenova Group was presented with two awards for its achievements in the Google Cloud ecosystem – the Retail Industry Customer Award and the Talent Transformation Award. On behalf of Fortenova Group the awards were accepted by Dragan Mrkajić, Fortenova Group’s Director of Data & AI Strategy.
Fortenova Group has thus, among a large number of Google Cloud platform users worldwide, been recognized for its achievements in the successful application of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence in its operating companies – Konzum Croatia, Mercator Slovenia and Mercator Serbia, all with a view to developing leading technological solutions in the retail industry.
“The „Google Cloud Customer Awards“ are an opportunity to acknowledge the most innovative, technically most advanced transformative cloud implementations across all industries, from all over the world, built on our platform”, said Brian Hall, Vice President for Product and Industry Marketing at Google Cloud. “I would like to congratulate Fortenova Group for winning this award, proving itself as the leading innovator in the industry.”
The prestigious award for users in retail bears witness to the exceptional use of the Google Cloud technology in forecasting demand for fresh products, assortment optimisation and maximising the efficiency of promotional activities, which eventually drives growth and customer satisfaction. This is, of course, accompanied by the strategic management of teams and talents, as witnessed by the award won for talent transformation. This is a recognition of the successful initiatives focused on addressing challenges in building a talent team for the realization of the most demanding analytical solutions on the markets of Central and Eastern Europe.
“We would like to thank Google Cloud for the partnership. This awards are but an additional incentive in realizing our goal for machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide us with the maximum value of data available in all our companies. This will significantly speed up our decision making process, make it possible to quicker verify the value of our business ideas and as a result – change and improve our business models to the benefit of all our customers” – commented Fabris Peruško, Fortenova Group’s Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors.
By using data analytics and machine learning, Fortenova Group’s DataLab as the Center of Excellence for artificial intelligence for the entire Group has worked on models of product assortment and promotion strategy optimisation and the improvement of fresh product demand forecasting capabilities. It has been proved that artificial intelligence solutions can generate significant business value.
Thus, through a number of A/B tests conducted in the retail operations in Serbia, the Advanced Promo Optimizer AI module has shown an increase in the promotion margin by approximately 0.5 points. The Assortment Recommender AI modul, tested in more than 60 stores in Croatia, has shown a gradual increase in sales of 1-3 percent in the tested categories, while the fruit and vegetables forecasting model shows a profitability improvement of approximately 8 percent in 65 percent of the stores through the reduction of waste and product stockouts. The model is currently implemented in more than 500 stores in Croatia.
“These achievements reflect the joint efforts of our retail companies and the Fortenova Group DataLab, in which we have successfully recruited a new team of data scientists, for a successful entry on the global scene. With data and artificial intelligence in the center of our operations we are excited about what is lying ahead, as we will continue to provide innovative solutions and form the future. Congratulations to the whole team”, said Bojan Radlović, Fortenova Group’s Chief Digital Officer.
As many as 13 Fortenova Group companies received the Certificate Employer Partner (CEP) for the year 2022, which is awarded for excellence in human resources management.
Out of the total number, five companies – Konzum, Pik Vrbovec, Jamnica, mStart and Fortenova grupa d.d. – successfully completed the recertification process, while eight companies participated in the certification process for the first time – Mercator-Serbia, Mg Mivela, Roto dinamic, Zvijezda, Dijamant, Belje, Pik Vinkovci and Vupik.
The Certificate Employer Partner is an unbiased acknowledgement by experts from the European HR community verifying the highest quality of management in seven key areas of human resources. Thereby the practices in Croatia are compared to global trends, thus improving the standards in human resources management and promoting examples of excellence in HR. The certification process assesses and awards points to topics such as selection, competence development, leadership, work performance, involvement and satisfaction, career and succession, rewarding etc. at all organisational levels.
“When so many different companies from one Group receive an external professional acknowledgement that the standards they apply in their operations are at the highest level, regardless of their respective area of operations, this is a legitimate reason to be proud and a proof that our internal bonds are getting ever stronger. However, due to the situation on the labour market that employers on all markets have been faced with since several years, this certification has a particular weight as it brings a great positive reverberation and recognition. Having satisfied and motivated employees and encouraging work environments, as well as creating and maintaining those partnership relations is what constitutes one of the key competitive advantages for employers today. This also means having a positive impact on a number of processes in our regional environment, which is the fundamental prerequisite for long-term sustainability” – said Fabris Peruško, Fortenova Group’s Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors on the occasion of the Certificate Employer Partner presentation ceremony.
“This is a truly valuable acknowledgement for all our initiatives taken so far in the area of human resources development at Fortenova Group companies and to all teams working on it with great commitment. Besides showing that the companies’ operations are on the right track and that the employees’ impact on the organisations’ growth is continuously being strengthened, those acknowledgements are also a significant motivation for us to continue being a good practice example for other companies in the region by placing employees in the focus of our operations” – said Gordana Fabris, Director of Human Resources at Fortenova Group.
“It has been a pleasure to follow Fortenova Group over the last three years since the first company from the Group got involved in the quality assessment of human resources management according to the regionally recognised Employer Partner methodology. We are particularly pleased to see that the number of companies from Fortenova Group that hold the Certificate Employer Partner has significantly grown. The thirteen Certificate holders have a headcount of more than 26 500 employees and thereby not only have an impact on the Croatian and the region’s economies, but also affect the quality of many work environments. We know from our consulting experience how challenging it is for companies of that size and diversification to introduce new HR processes and implement changes. Fortenova Group companies particularly stand out in terms of the quality of their recruitment processes, onboarding for new employees and employee development through internal academies with impressive tradition. We look forward to future successes of Fortenova Group companies which will certainly not fail to happen given the great investments in people, which are their main value” – said Lara Šubić Šuše, Employer Partner Project Manager.
Fortenova grupa d.d. has received the acknowledgement “Family Friendly Employer”, awarded for the fourth year in a row by the Central Government Office for Demographics and Youth to companies with best quality solutions in achieving a friendly atmosphere towards employees and their families, particularly taking into account the adjustment of the employers to employees’ families over the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 2018, when it was awarded for the first time, this acknowledgement has established itself as an important public commendation to those employers whose relation to their employees stands witness to their socially responsible approach and also shows a diversity of solutions for creating a friendly and encouraging environment for employees and their families.
“At the company we have focused on our employees with children, by providing parents with certain benefits in those moments of life that are important to them. At the same time we are focused on the idea of projecting optimism, as we believe that the optimism that we build within our company also affects the broader society. Viewed in the context of the declining population, we think that what is missing in our society is optimism. It is important for us to support family life as well as optimism, because we believe that it is possible to create personal wealth, values and business success in our region and that people can feel good here” – said Fabris Peruško, Fortenova Group’s Chief Executive Officer, on the occasion of the award presentation.
Gordana Fabris, Fortenova Group’s Director of Human Resources, noted that the wide array of benefits at Fortenova Group ranged from employee health care by way of covering additional health insurance costs, thru a number of measures supporting parenthood – flexible working hours and four-hour workdays for parents of children with special needs, the possibility of gradual return to work following maternity or parental leave, use of days off for the child’s first day at school or kindergarten – up to subsidized sporting activities for its employees.
“Fortenova Group’s commitment to building a community that places the focus on family values has been recognized by the Central Government Office for Demographics and Youth, which has awarded us the acknowledgement “Family Friendly Employer” for the year 2021. We are exceptionally proud of this valuable recognition, which is also an encouragement to keep focusing on the welfare of our employees even more” – Gordana Fabris said.