President Stjepan Mesic visits Messer's Croatian subsidiary during their "open house"

On Monday, May 3rd, Croatian president Stjepan Mesic visited Messer Group's Croatian subsidiary in Kutina. The event, with over 140 guests from all of Croatia's bestknown firms in attendance, along with official representatives from the German Embassy, was held to honor Messer Croatia Plin's more than ten years of operation as well as thirty years of gas production in Kutina, located east of the capital of Zagreb.

Industrial gases, made in Kutina for customers throughout Croatia"Messer's investment has been a case of successful privatization here in Croatia and, more importantly, Messer is bringing new technologies and new capital to Croatia. Due to this, Croatia is becoming an exporting country, which is very important especially in times like these." explained President Mesic. Croatia is one of the Messer Group’s most important markets in Eastern Europe. “Our Croatian company has been a full member of our corporate group for many years now, and we hope that the EU will soon follow our example by welcoming Croatia into the EU,” said Stefan Messer, Managing Director of the Messer Group.The Kutina plant, used for the production of industrial gases, was established in 1974. When the Messer Group built up its Croatian activities from 1992 to 1994, the existing gas production operations in Kutina were incorporated into Messer's network of locations in Croatia.

"The success of our business here is due to our quality and the reliability of our deliveries to our customers in Croatia and its neighboring countries, and to our flexibility and innovative spirit which allows us to continually come up with new solutions for our customers." said Eduard Nöthig, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Messer Croatia Plin d.o.o.As part of the expansion and modernization of production capacities throughout Croatia, Messer invested in the construction of a new N₂O facility (in 1997) and also refurbished its CO₂ capacities last year in Kutina. Today, 240 employees provide customers in whole Croatia with products via an ideally-distributed supply network. The air separation units (for the production of oxygen, nitrogen and argon liquid gases) in Zapresic and Dugi Rat, the production of carbon dioxide, acetylene, nitrous oxide, and other gases in Kutina and other locations offer a wide variety of products and services which are indispensable for many areas of business. Messer Croatia generated a turnover of 158 million Kuna in 2003.

A strong innovative spirit on its way towards the EUIn past years, the company has proven itself not only as a competent partner in the Croatian beverage industry, but recently as the provider of an innovative solution in the field of oil extraction as well. Together with its partner INA Naftaplin, Messer has begun the EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) pilot project, a modern process which up to now has only rarely been used. With this forward-thinking project, which uses CO₂ in oil fields to markedly increase their service life and make extraction more economical, Messer Croatia Plin is making a contribution to the Croatian economy as well as the country's efforts to obtain EU membership.