Hrvatska pošta

HP-Hrvatska pošta d.d., founded in 1999, is a state-owned joint-stock company in Croatia that performs postal and payment transactions. It is the national postal operator of the Republic of Croatia.

It is one of the largest service and retail networks in the country. In addition to postal and logistics services, it also offers financial and retail services throughout Croatia. It is one of the co-founders and a full member of the Association of European Public Postal Operators (PostEurop).

The Croatian Post also issues postage stamps of the Republic of Croatia.

Since the independence of Croatia
In 1990, the Croatian Parliament established the public company Hrvatska pošta i telekomunikacije (HPT), with the main activity of providing postal and telecommunications services. The company was the legal successor of the former 13 companies of PTT-promet in Croatia and took over their rights and obligations. It consisted of the Joint Services (Office of the Director, Economic Affairs Division, Legal, Human Resources and General Affairs Division, Internal Control and Audit Service) and the Post and Telecommunications Directorates, which were specially organized for organizational and technological separation of postal and telecommunications systems.

Given the diversity of activities and the then technologically separate functioning of the Post Office and the Telecommunications Directorate, and in line with global trends, in 1999 HPT split into HP - Hrvatska pošta (Croatian Post) and HT - Hrvatske telekomunikacije (Croatian Telecommunications; Hrvatski Telekom as of 2010), and since then Croatian Post has operated as an independent joint stock company.

On 1 July 2019, the Croatian Post became a member of the International Post Corporation (IPC), an international organization that brings together leading postal operators in Europe, North America and Australia.

In October 2019, the Croatian Post took over the company Locodels, which specializes in same-day city delivery.

At the beginning of 2020, the Croatian Post successfully tested drone delivery from the Zadar port of Gaženica to Preko on the island of Ugljan. It is part of a pilot project with the Croatian company AIR-RMLD, which develops commercial and industrial services with drones. The new tests will demonstrate the possibilities of using drones in the delivery of letters and parcels between post offices and indicate the needs of the Croatian Post for this type of technology.

New infrastructure
In May 2017, the construction of the New Sorting Center in Velika Gorica began, a project worth HRK 350 million. The new sorting center was officially opened in September 2019 and is the largest investment in the history of the Croatian Post. The total area of the facility is 32,000 square meters, while the horticultural landscaped areas cover 16,000 square meters.

In July 2021, the construction of an office building began, beginning the 2nd phase of the construction of the New Sorting Center, which will complete the complex. In March 2022, a new business facility of the Croatian Post worth HRK 60 million was opened in the Bakar-Kukuljanovo industrial zone. With the opening of the Kukuljanovo Business Facility, the largest investment cycle in the history of Croatian Post (worth one billion HRK) was completed, and Istria County and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County now have one of the four most modern points in the network of sorting facilities in Croatia, which also includes facilities in Zadar and Osijek, and the New Sorting Center in Velika Gorica.

Parcel lockers
In April 2021, the Croatian Post began to install parcel lockers. The delivery and sending of items from parcel lockers is handled by Paket24, a Croatian Post parcel delivery service.

The Croatian post plans a total of 300 parcel lockers, with 150 due to be open by the end of 2022.

Cryptocurrency stamps
In September 2020, the Croatian Post issued the first Croatian crypto stamp. The crypto stamp consists of a physical and a digital part. The physical part of the crypto stamp can be detached and used to pay postage, while the digital part in the form of an NFT remains for use on the blockchain.

The first Croatian cryptocurrency was issued in five categories with five different motifs depicting means of transport: van (60,000 copies), train (25,000 copies), ship (10,000 copies), airplane (4,000 copies) and drone (1,000 copies). The crypto stamp was designed in cooperation with the Croatian blockchain community, and the Postereum digital token was made by the Croatian company Bitx. All 500 crypto stamps, available for purchase with cryptocurrencies, were sold in 16 hours.

The second edition of the crypto stamp, Crypto Stamp 2, was released in December 2020 and was issued in a sheet with one self-adhesive stamp and printed in the quantity of 30,000 copies. The stamp has five digital motifs featuring the subject of postal items transport throughout history: an Austro-Hungarian postman, a postillion on a horse, a mail carriage, a telegraph delivery man on a bicycle, and a postman on a moped.

The third crypto stamp was presented on 9 September 2021 with the motif of a fully electric hyper-car Rimac Nevera. The Rimac Nevera motif appears in five different categories: the golden Rimac Nevera is issued in 2,000 copies, silver in 4,000, bronze in 6,000, grey in 8,000, and blue-green in 10,000 copies, making for a total of 30,000 copies. The first 1,500 issued crypto stamps, which were available for purchase with cryptocurrencies, sold out in just over three days.

Green business and electric vehicles
The Croatian Post currently has more than 200 electric vehicles in its fleet, including bicycles, quadricycles and mopeds. In the second half of 2020, charging stations for electric vehicles were set up in Velika Gorica, Osijek and Zadar, allowing the Post to expand this fleet in the future.

Structure
The Croatian Post is the only state-owned company that does not follow the country's administrative structure with its organizational structure. The Croatian Post segmented its internal organization by focusing on individual products and services and at the same time integrating the company's business segments into a complete corporation. The divisional organization of the Croatian Post represents one of the largest reorganizations of companies in the Republic of Croatia.

The company is divided into four divisions: Post Division, Network Division, Express Division and Support Division.

The Post Division is in charge of transporting, sorting and delivering letter-post items. The Network Division manages the network of post offices. The Express Division is in charge of the express delivery service – Paket24. The Support Division is, among other things, in charge of finance and real property. In addition to the divisions, the Croatian Post has nine offices of the Management Board.

Postal Services
The Croatian Post is the national postal operator, and the postal services it offers include the acceptance, sorting, transport and delivery of postal items in domestic and international traffic. Universal postal services are provided on the entire territory of the Republic of Croatia and to all users under the same conditions. In addition to universal services, the Croatian Post also provides a number of other postal services: acceptance, sorting, transport and delivery of direct mail, stationery (books and printing), parcels, paid reply items (IBRS/CCRI items), express mail items (EMS) and value-added shipments: Paket24, business parcel and e-parcel.

ePost
ePost is a service by which Croatian Post enables its users to perform a number of services electronically. The ePost service allows users to receive and send letters, messages and documents (including invoices) in electronic form, pay bills by credit and debit cards, whether they arrived via the service or at a home address, and save documents in a secure archive accessible anywhere and anytime.

Bank at the Post
Bank at the Post is a joint project of Hrvatska poštanska banka and the Croatian Post. As part of the project, banking services of Hrvatska poštanska banka are provided to private and business users in post offices throughout Croatia. Since December 2020, business customers (private companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, local government and self-government) can open an HPB business account in almost 1,000 post offices, perform national payment transactions in HRK, contract Internet and mobile banking, deposit, cards and other banking services.

Paket24
The Paket24 service is an express delivery service of the Croatian Post that evenly covers the entire territory of the Republic of Croatia and guarantees next-day delivery of items in more than 200 locations.

Locodels
Locodels is a company owned by the Croatian Post that provides same-day city delivery services in cooperation with online stores in all major Croatian cities.

Cryptocurrency exchange
In December 2019, the cryptocurrency redemption service was introduced in 55 post offices in all counties where foreign and domestic users can convert cryptocurrencies into kuna. In October 2021, the service was extended to sell cryptocurrencies.

Philately
The Croatian Post has been issuing postage stamps of the Republic of Croatia since 1991. The first regular postage stamp, Zagreb-Dubrovnik Airport, was issued on 9 September 1991, and the first commemorative postage stamp was issued on 10 December 1991 on the occasion of the declaration of independence of the Republic of Croatia. Since then, in 30 years, the Croatian Post has issued 1,360 postage stamps (September 2021) with a wide range of topics and motifs. Postage stamps issued by the Croatian Post have also won numerous international awards.

"Vaša pošta" Foundation
The Croatian Post has established the “Vaša pošta” Foundation in order to provide financial assistance to children without adequate parental care to make it easier for them to become independent. Sponsors found by the Croatian Post waive their commissions in order to pay life insurance policies on behalf of the children. This amount is paid to the residents of foster homes as a kind of annuity at the time of leaving the foster home, so that they can cover the basic costs of living until they find employment. The establishment of the Foundation is a continuation of the humanitarian project “Good People to the Children of Croatia”, which the Croatian Post has been implementing since 2009.