Wine Barrel Makers

[lawrenzo]

Hi Guys, I am looking for some work related information if anyone could help. I am employed as a Cooper (Barrel Maker) in my home country of Scotland for the whisky industry. I am going to be moving to Croatia early next year for minimum of a year, but hopefully making the move permanent I know Croatia has a wine industry so does anyone know if there are any Wine Barrel Makers? This information would be very helpful as i will need to find employment when i make the move.

Thanks for your time, Lawrence 

[Ribaric]

Hi Lawrence, I don't know is the short answer but I suspect that 95% of all winemaking vessels are stainless steel these days. Certainly, all the active vineyards in my area that l've seen use modern equipment throughout the process. Where will you be living?

[lawrenzo]

Hi Ribaric, yes you are right my friend most wine is now done in stainless steel but there is a still a small market for wooden wine casks. I have not decided where I am going to live as of yet. I think I am going to fly into Split and then travel around and see some of the country and then settle where I either find work or find somewhere I really like. I am open to ideas? I would pretty much try any line off work to be honest.

[Carol]

Lawrence, Croatia is still in recession (since 2008). Even before then it had 25% unemployment, when only a surprisingly small % of the population are eligible for work anyway. (Think study until your mid-late 20s and retire when you are 50 something, but don't work at all if you fought in the war).

The upshot is that jobs are few and far between and people pull every string they can to get one. It really is who you know, not what you know. Once you've got a job, you don't leave until you retire. Jobs in Croatia pay incredibly badly coupled with eye-wateringly high taxes (to support all those who don't work) that would cause a revolution in the UK.

Emigrate by all means, but think carefully before you choose Croatia if you need to work to survive.

[lawrenzo]

Thank you for your info Carol very much appreciated I am currently looking into a lot off what you have stated above so you have saved me a great deal off time. I really have my heart set on a move to Croatia and I will have savings to keep me going for while so fingers crossed I can pick up work somewhere along the line.

Thank you for your reply

[kesterj]

Oct 18, 2014 9:49:55 GMT 1 lawrenzo said:

Hi Guys, I am looking for some work related information if anyone could help. I am employed as a Cooper (Barrel Maker) in my home country of Scotland for the whisky industry. I am going to be moving to Croatia early next year for minimum of a year, but hopefully making the move permanent I know Croatia has a wine industry so does anyone know if there are any Wine Barrel Makers? This information would be very helpful as i will need to find employment when i make the move.

Thanks for your time, Lawrence 

d**n! just lost the reply.

Start agin. OK, this will be shorter.

I visited two places - but it was in 2008.

Try Pepel in Durdenovac, near Nasice. Family firm - but mainly repairing old barrels. The new ones were small jobs, more for homes. they worked though. they gave me one as a present.

The ohter place was in Pleternice. It's a proper industial factory - export barrels.

This is Slavonia, and the use Slavonian oak. Not a touristy area - well, it is, but not for foreigners. Rolling hills, think Gloucestershire with vineyards. (and, in some places, burned out homes of former residents.)

As there are few visitors, folks are friendly enough.

I met a guy called Branimir at Pleternice - but whehter he is still there is doubful. I don't want to put their emails out on the web here - try googling them, or I can perhaps send you a prvt message.

Getting work there - hmmm. Read Carol's post again. And defore you decide to set up a company, I'd read carefully through the many anguished threads in here about experiences. Croatian bureaucracy (and this region) is not exactly entrepreneur friendly - you must understand.

kesterj

[kesterj]

Oct 18, 2014 17:58:20 GMT 1 january said:

Yes the traditional art is still practised, and oak barrels still produced, here is one maker in Croatia, the website is also in English.

www.tofrado-bacvarija.hr/en/

you beat me to it! kesterj

[lawrenzo]

Guys you have been so much help! Thank you I am glad to see they are still making barrels in Croatia. I will go check out the link

[Carol]

Lawrenzo, if you can say yes to at least two of these questions, then you might stand a small chance of getting a job in Croatia:-
- Croatian and lived in Croatia all your life
- have lots of friends and family in Croatia who might know someone who'd give you a job as a favour to that person
- speak fluent Croatian

The following should be disregarded:-

Lots of qualifications? (reason: Irrelevant except to calculate your taxes.)
Ultra-experienced? (Reason: When did Croatians ever need to know how do their jobs?!)
Hard working? (Just wait until the work inspector catches you. He is sure to need to heavily fine your employer for that!)

The only guaranteed way to get a job in Croatia is to set up a company employ yourself. However, that's an incredibly bad idea. I just wish someone had given me that advice any time before I saddled myself with a Croatian company that i fear I will never be free from!

[Carol]

Maybe you are right, January.

However, I still run a business in Croatia, so I know more than most about the realities.

I believe things are changing veeeery sloooooooooooooowly, but changing nonetheless, and usually for the better.

Its a bit much though, don't you think to play with someone's life by encouraging them to go to a country to look for work where they really have no chance of finding one?

[Ribaric]

In my business, including my time working with MG, l have encountered about a few dozen people/couples who arrived here with a lump sum which was to buy a home and finance a period of settling in and either finding a job/starting a d.o.o. Here's few observations....

To date, half are still here and doing OK, nearly half have left having lost pretty much everything, one remains on a knife edge. In my experience, couples fare much better than individuals, 90% of those remaining live from their own entrepreneurship, those remaining nearly all came close to throwing in the towel but stuck it out. Finding work or making a small business seems to get easier the further north and further away from the coast you go. If you have a bad marriage, your struggles here will test it to breaking point. Some of those who have left probably would have failed anywhere although some were really very switched on but faced insurmountable odds.

Bottom line? It's tough and even the best will fail without a bit of luck from time to time. Don't come here chasing a dream, come here if you can see a way to survive, there's plenty of time for dreaming later.

This has nothing at all to do with barrels but hey!

[Carol]

Maybe so, January, but you are not slow to tell me that I am behind the times (its the second time you have written it) and your post talked of how people like Lawrence should be encouraged.

I agree with you, to an extent, for Croatia's sake, people with some get up and go are desperately needed. However, where I disagree is that people like should be encouraged to give up (part of) their lives to Croatia. We all know that Croatia would take someone like Lawrence, swallow him up and spit him out.

- Its fine if you have a job there with a multi-national company (well its not fine but its a d**n sight easier).

- You'll survive if you have a lot of money behind you and you want to operate a business, as long as you operate the system with exceptional skill and quickly gain the requisite experience and insight.

- I don't really know what happens to those who come to Croatia for love - they get by, I suppose, as long as the relationship lasts and they have the support of their partner's family.

- It could be good as a place to retire, as long as you don't need the healthcare system, or alternatively, you place yourself near the Zagreb hospital.

- Single person looking for work though, with no connections and who isn't Bosnian??? How many others can you say you know who have arrived and stayed the course? I can't think of anyone.

PS I forgot to add, everyone needs a good measure of luck. Hard work, knowledge, a sunny outlook and being a quick learner are not enough.