This month we are bringing you an interview with Slaven Bošnjak, the owner of Aranea, our historical distributor in Croatia and in the countries of Former Yugoslavia. The partnership between Aranea and Valente began a decade ago and we think it is finally time to tell you more about our story!
Aranea company was established back in 2008 by Slaven Bošnjak.
In 2008 he was working in the field of financial management in major construction companies. One day a friend of him asked for his help to arrange a business plan to buy a piece of land. Working on this project he came in touch for the first time with modern fruit growing world, and he learned more about soil preparation, materials necessary to establish the orchard, irrigation, systems to protect against bad weather conditions.
During business plan writing, Slaven realized that there were only three companies dealing with technical solutions for orchard, and none of them were fully committed to that field of work and he immediately thought: “There is space for me!”
Meanwhile he lost his job. That event and his difficult family situation became a “turning point” between his old life and the new one: Slaven decided to set up his own companyan that it has to be involved somehow with hail protection systems.
He spent the following six months freely working in the orchards of Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Italy and Germany, in order to analyze established systems of several different companies. Shortly he discovered from farmers that the best posts and anti-hail systems were of an Italian producer, a company named Valente.
With the aim of combining the best quality with the best price, Slaven visited almost all most important producers and companies, and he understood that despite the advantages of the individual elements of each system, the best complete system was Valente ones, both qualitative and economically speaking. And so since 2009 we have been working together.
Nowadays there are 34 full time employees in Aranea; company is located in Nustar – Vinkovci, on north-east part of Croatia, next to Serbian border. They own all equipment to set up a complete system (excavators, lifting platforms, trucks, machinery, GPS equipment…) and has annual turnover of 2 mil. euros.
“While our collaboration was growing”, says Slaven “I realized very soon that Valente not only has the best concrete posts, but it also offers an excellent complete system with several different covering options: anti-hail, anti-rain or anti-insect. Although I can buy single similar items from other suppliers, sparing couple of euros, I decided to continue working with Valente. On our field, even a small wrong accessory may damage the whole system and the safeness I can always have a prompt advice contacting a unique partner for everything I need for my job is what makes Valente simply the best of our field.”
He still adds: “In Valente I feel like at home, I’m part of a family, so I’m never alone: I always have technical support, a great network of contacts and, above everything, a huge help with my crazy way of working.” – Mr. Bošnjak concludes.
Our Export Manager, Mr. Cristian Ferrari adds: “It is natural that after 10 years of collaboration a personal relationship will develop, in addition to the professional one. This is what happened with Slaven: we worked together 24/7 non-stop, refined and perfected a system that would meet the needs of our customers in the former Yugoslavia; and all the skills he has acquired over time, now are also our skills. Slaven is not just a customer, it is also an important distributor and an excellent and competent technician. In fact, when some of our foreign customers are in trouble with installations in “extreme” situations, I know that I can always count on his support, just like with a family member. “