Hum na Sutli – Croatia’s Economic Miracle

With an unemployment rate of around just 2 percent, a high birth rate, and companies employing entire classes, the town of Hum na Sutli – located in the northern Croatian county of Krapina-Zagorje – is breaking the norm in the country, reports HRT…

With imports dominating Croatia’s economy, Hum na Sutli is a small county with a sizeable industry. For more than a century and a half the locals, which totals more than 6,000 today, have been living off the glass industry, which is a symbol of the towns existence even today. The Vetropack Guard glass factory is now Swiss-owned and employs 607 people, with three melting furnaces and 11 production lines producing 250,000 tons of glass or 950 million bottles a year. Over 70% of production is exported, with between 70-80% heading to neighbouring countries.

One little known fact about the Croatian economic miracle town is that one of every ten bottles in the world comes from Hum na Sulti mold. OMCO, which is owned by a Belgian company, annually hire an entire class of Metalworkers from Krapina. Thanks to the booming industry the town does not face the problems many small towns in Croatia are facing with low birth rates. A high birth rate means the local kindergarten has a waiting list of around 60 kids. Hum na Sutli is not content there, as it now toys around with ideas how to make the town attractive to tourists.