Chocolate kingdom supported by everyone except the city administration

There is a chocolate factory Nautilus in Zapresic which tries to soften the sour taste of recession for the citizens of Zagreb County. They produce exclusive and personalized chocolate products which they sell directly to their customers without any marketing agents. They have been running their business for two years now and they have already been recognized in the market and therefore they have opened new working places. The secret of their success is in their chocolate but also in the persistent work of 13 young women working there. The head of the team is their manager Mihaela Bartolin.

- We mostly do business with firms which order manufactured chocolate products according to their wishes. It can be a logo of a firm made of chocolate or the chocolate models of their products. They can be made in any colors and tastes, the manager Bartolin says when we look at the shelves full of different sweet patterns. There are weights made for a mechanic who fixes scales, tools (for car mechanics), bones made of white chocolate (for a doctor)…

The sweet chocolate kingdom in the western part of Zagreb County was recognized by many people except the city administration of Zapresic.

- Although we open new working places and in spite of being the rare newly opened production firm in this area, the city administration ignores us. Our product is almost entirely domestic but it is obvious that the government of Zapresic doesn’t care – was a comment made by the manager of this prosperous factory. She would like to present the chocolate products to visitors of Zapresic as an authentic souvenir.

Nautilus offers cooperation to other Croatian entrepreneurs because they want to keep Croatian authenticity. They try to find packages and ingredients, colors and sweeteners at home.

- Why do we have to be ashamed of our own products? We can make everything as good as the Italians or the French. Do we really have to import everything from China? – the people from Nautilus say. And the proof for their success is also the first order they got from the Chinese market itself.

You can find in these Croatian sweet products all kinds of domestic ingredients i.e. honey produced in Pozega, sweet figs and carob powder from Dalmatia. A new chocolate creation is made in Nautilus almost every day thanks to the imagination of its workers.

- We do everything by ourselves, from the production to the package design. We want our customer to trust our product, to know exactly how it is made and what ingredients it has – the manager of Nautilus explains. She also announces that this successful story continues with the initiative to open the first chocolate bar in Zapresic.