Barjans d.o.o.

The company from Vrhnika setting new hygiene standards 

"We’ve also had some luck, since no one believed that you could, in a manner of speaking, make something out of toilet paper.” These are words shared with us through laughter by Janez Barbo Sr., the founding father and co-owner of Barjans d.o.o., a company now celebrating 30 years of tradition. His eldest son, Janez Barbo Jr., Authorized Representative and Key Account Manager, adds that when he began to expand the already blooming family company, together with his father, during the period immediately after Slovenia gained its independence, that was “the time when it was necessary to start with something new.” So they started; slowly, but bravely and with greater determination every day. Even today, having grown beyond the scale of most family businesses, they like to emphasize that they are a family company with a family mindset, something which is still, as they stress, highly valued.

Selling products, offering expertise

The Barjans company is a wholesaler of sanitary paper, professional cleaning agents and cleaning tools. They offer virtually everything in the hygiene field, from cleaning machines and sanitary supplies to consumables for the catering industry and paper products. Their range includes more than 4,000 items, aimed at all levels of professional requirement and various price points. Last year, they achieved revenues of just over €8 million, but the company’s success is built on far more than its sales volume. The family believes that their depth of knowledge is perhaps even more important to the provision of an effective cleanliness and hygiene system than their range of good quality products. “That is our competitive advantage. Many suppliers just deliver cleaning agents to the client but we don’t do business that way. Firstly, we advise our customers on the most appropriate products for them and then we train them in how to use the products correctly. Modern materials used in surfaces nowadays can easily be ruined by using the wrong cleaning agent or the wrong cleaning method. The cleaning process has evolved drastically over the years and our company has developed and grown with these changes,” explains Gregor Živec, who is in charge of sales and integrated customer support. While he has no family ties to the company, he has worked there for more than 12 years. 

Family mentality is deeply rooted in the company

Although Barjans employs nearly 50 people today, the company philosophy tying them together as one big family, regardless of size, is still deeply rooted: “The credit for this goes to all three Barbo co-owners, the father and both sons,” says Živec, enthusiastically adding that he feels completely as an equal with the company’s owners and that the input of every employee counts. “It’s true that we make all our decisions through consensus, or based on the proposals of employees, and you won’t hear of a course of action resulting from a management directive. Our communication is always open when making decisions and the proposal that everyone considers the best also wins,” says Director Matevž Barbo, first among equals, in describing the company’s culture. He adds that the healthy relationship among employees, whether they are family or not, honest and open communication, the relaxed atmosphere throughout  and thus the employees’ sense of belonging, are in his view the recipe for the company’s success. “People who work in our company are very protective of it,” says Ana Basić Dremelj, Marketing Manager, when describing the engagement of employees.

How did they find their market niche?

Relationships and communication in the company have developed over time, primarily due to growth and the consequent increase in activity. “We started in a garage, with only a handful of clients, and worked hard from morning to evening,” says Vesna Fišter. Vesna has worked in the company since its foundation and now is Procurement Manager. Matevž describes the beginning and his journey in the company thus: “I’ve always been involved in everything; I have literally grown up with the company so I have, much like my older brother, an insight into everything.” When they were starting, the mindset of people, their potential buyers, was also significantly different than today, as “people didn’t think about hygiene that much.” Their market niche was discovered by Janez Sr., at that time a director of a hotel chain. Janez Jr. believes that they were the pioneers in this field in Slovenia: “For example, when we started to offer liquid hand soap, people looked strangely at us at first, saying that they already had soap, so why would we be offering them something so much more expensive? The change of mindset for people to realize that they needed it took some time.”

Assuring high quality comes first

Their mission and goal have always been to be the best in their industry. They say that they have reached this goal in Slovenia but that they need to work hard every day to maintain it. The potential for growth, they estimate, is still there, but first and foremost they want to preserve high quality: “We don’t work just to operate a business and build up references. The added value and quality must remain so that we actually gain quality customers.”

The Slovenian market is, in their own words, demanding and because it provides ample work, they have never really thought about expanding abroad. Public institutions, schools, healthcare centers and hospitals account for 40% of their operations, where a lack of awareness about the importance of hygiene is still present all too often, much as it is in the private sector. No one is willing to invest more money into hygiene and the same applies to organic cleaning agents: “In the world of professional cleaning, where manufacturers maintain the idea that a cleaning agent should be powerful and the price should be low, organic cleaning agents are out of the question. At home, we invest a little more effort and a few more minutes of our time, but a professional cleaning provider, limited by working hours and number of employees, can hardly do that.” At the same time, the demand for organic cleaning agents is much greater than 10 years ago and there are also companies who have adopted certain standards on using organic cleaning agents without chemicals. Of course, the Barjans company supplies these products to such companies, although the overall trend is toward lesser use of cleaning agents. Whereas in the past, 40 to 50 litres of cleaning agents were used in one building, we use only 10 litres today. However, such cleaning agents are concentrated or the quantity used is measured much more thoroughly. Development of the company and the industry is something Barjans strives for every day. 

All investments are carefully planned

Barjans invests heavily in its personnel, employing expert hygiene engineers. All other investments are also very carefully planned, not least because this is a family company which has grown through a great deal of sacrifice. They are socially responsible and consider all the requests for donations they receive throughout the year, before deciding collectively on which to support. If projects are somehow linked to hygiene, they are always happy to help, especially when there are children or local associations involved.

In 2004, they established the Barjans Education Center, through which they regularly conduct professional and practical training in the field of hygiene and cleanliness, and where participants can obtain an internationally-recognized certificate. This fall saw the completion of their new, long-anticipated state-of-the-art warehouse.

They cannot even believe their own outstanding success

They have never had difficulties with ownership, but Matevž Barbo says that he would like to hand the management of the company over to his children sooner rather than later. In the same breath, he also reveals: “They are still too young to know what they are interested in. If this is how the family tradition goes on, it will be great. If not, we will organize ourselves differently when the time is right. However, although I am the Director, I don’t really run the business - the employees do.” Admiring the new premises, Janez Jr. reflects on how everything they have achieved so far is above initial expectations. “We started from scratch, with just my own ideas and those of my dad, with the intention of making a living. I had a garage, a car and a trailer at my disposal. Today, we have all this. It’s amazing.” The founding father, Janez Sr., is also proud and happy; so much so that he has little input into company matters these days. Instead, he likes to spend time in his new fruit orchard, where around 60 trees, mostly pears, grow on the hill behind the company. He keeps extremely busy with these trees, he proudly says, so future generations will be able to enjoy the fruits of his work.