Interview of the week - Samer & Co. Shipping - Croatia

Aleksandar is a driven and versatile entrepreneur with a passion for the logistics industry. Growing up in a family business centered on transportation and logistics, he developed an early interest that shaped his professional path. After earning his degree in Zagreb and gaining experience in the family company, he built a decade-long career in corporate international freight forwarding, holding key roles in operations, sales, and leadership.

In 2016, he co-founded a joint venture holding company with his partner, Enrico Samer, aiming to expand a multinational freight forwarding business. With a blend of curiosity and resilience, he continues to explore new opportunities, striving to make a lasting impact on the global industry and community.

Tell us about Samer & Co. Shipping d.o.o. Who owns the company?

Company Samer & Co. Shipping d.o.o.  is a joint venture company owned 75% by Samer International SRL and 25% by the management team of Samer Croatia, MD Karolina Cigula Bozicevic who holds 18% and KAM- Mirko Vladovic who owns the rest 7%. 

Tell us a few words about your personal experience, your expertise and the company's business in general.

We opened the company in 2016 and today we are one of top freight forwarders in Croatia.  Our main competences lie in project business, air, sea and road, our primary product being conventional rail. For project logistics, Samer Zagreb is our main company providing project services to the Samer International group.  We work in close cooperation with the project & chartering department in our HQ office in Trieste and provide services, not only for the Croatian market, but also for our own offices in Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, and Bosnia.  So, we have vast project knowledge as a group and we can support our partners in their needs within the region as well.

Other than Samer Croatia, under Samer International SRL we have offices in Koper, Ljubljana, Bratislava, Budapest, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Sarajevo, and Istanbul. Recently, we opened our branch in Odessa/UA in order to mainly support ongoing, and also future projects, in the country.  In the countries we operate, we also have a separate company that deals with loading/ lashing surveys, cargo controls for insurance purposes as Lloyd's of London insurance brokers. So, we can support that part of business as well.

Where are your offices located?

In Croatia, our main office is in the city of Zagreb as well as an office in the Custom terminal Jankomir and one at the airport.

Tell us about projects that you have handled recently.

Recently, we handled the move of 550 cars from Koper to Israel utilizing a chartering vessel as well. We also handled oversize cargo of military equipment from the Baltics to Croatia and Serbia. Now we are in the process of moving 4 transformers of approximate dimensions 12 m x 5m x 5 m, each weighing 450 tons to UA over Constanta starting with a road survey.  Moreover, we are preparing the move of a large number of oversized shipments from Rijeka to Belgrade for our Chinese agent for building a sports stadium.

Which are the main industries served in Croatia and which one seems to be your focus point?

We serve many industries, but one of our strong points I can mention is air exports to US, where we are a market leader with very strong infrastructure in the country, providing on time delivery throughout the US thanks to our great agents. Additionally, we are focused on projects of handling equipment and machinery, especially now, with all the new investments taking place in our region.

We aim to participate in projects by supporting our clients from the very beginning of building their factory or infrastructure, which means that we must support them way before moving the first piece of cargo.  That involves investigating the best optimal routes, conducting road surveys, importing cargoes for the client etc. Our strong area of expertise is chartering vessels and handling conventional train service from/to port or terminal to terminal across Europe which is a service that not many freight forwarders provide in our region. 

Is Project Cargo Forwarding a competitive sector in Croatia? How do you ensure that you stand out?

It is as competitive as any other market in the region I believe. We stand out with our dedication to each project, service quality and solving problems which do happen in our business frequently. For that reason, in our companies, the MD is always directly involved in each project of bigger size.

As I previously said, at Samer, the MD is also a minority share-holder so he/she really takes it personally and makes sure that the client is happy and that problems are solved. Other than that, we are focused on CEE & the entire Balkan region, not only Croatia, so, I believe we can support larger areas for our clients than local freight forwarders do. 

What parts of Heavylift project management seem to be challenging in Croatia? Any advice to be shared as a precaution or as an important highlight to a potential customer? 

Due to Croatia’s specific shape, it is a challenge to handle deliveries to the lower part of Dalmatia from the port of Rijeka, which entails high costs, especially in case the project involves low cargo quantity and we cannot charter a vessel to Zadar, Split or Ploce. Another problem we face is the very limited number of truckers that can support oversize cargo, mainly higher weights. The reason is that we have a significantly smaller number of foreign investments than in e.g. Serbia, so less projects meaning less suppliers. For example, last year we handled a big project of moving an entire beer factory to several overseas destinations where we had to out-source a company to pack one part of cargo in wooden boxes and another to pack in thermofoil.It proved to be quite challenging to find companies in Croatia to guarantee the handling in the required time so eventually we used an Austrian one for that service. 

What made you personally join the industry?

Good question!  Actually, my father had a trucking company for a long time, so I continued working in the logistic industry, but without directly dealing with trucks and drivers.

What do you like the most about your business?

Every day is different, and no one can say he knows what to expect the next day. After more than 20 years in this industry, I’m still surprised, sometimes negatively but more often positively. Most importantly though, is that I have the privilege to work with great professionals and great people in my company from who I constantly learn and that’s most important part for me.

Who should be approached in Samer & Co. Shipping d.o.o for inquiries? 

In our company, the MD is always involved in the project business from start to end, so that would be Karolina Cigula-Bozicevic at karolina.cigula-bozicevic@samer.com