Gavrilović (company)

Gavrilovićis a Croatianfood processingcompany specializing in meats such assausagesandsalami. The company is based inPetrinja,Croatiaand can trace its history there as far back as 1690.
The precursor to the modern company began in 1690, when Ivan and Petar Gavrilović began a craft of selling meat inPetrinja. During 1775, the family of Gavrilović are mentioned as one of the founders of the butcher's guild, and at the beginning of the 19th century, they are referenced as the main supplier ofNapoleon's army.The company itself was founded in 1821, being granted the concession for manufacture to supply the barracks of theCroatian Military Frontier, and its existing processes were expanded. In 1883, it began producing its trademarkwinter salamivariously known as hrvatska salama or gavrilovićka. It operated as a family company under the name "Mate Gavrilović i drug", renamed in 1889 as "Prva hrvatska tvornica salame, sušena mesa i masti" with about 50 employees. It was eventually incorporated as alimited liability company(d.o.o) during its modernization process in 1902 and began exporting its products to other countries such asHungary,Switzerland,Germany,PalestineandEgypt. After two decades, it began producingcanned foodand prepared food and following its nationalization afterWorld War IIby the Communist authorities ofYugoslavia, it was again renamed to "Gavrilović". By then it grew into a company employing 4500 people, opening its first shops inZagreband exporting toFrance,Italy,Czechoslovakia,EnglandandAustria. During the 60s, it also began exporting to theUnited States. In 1991, the company was given back to Đuro (Georg) Gavrilović.In 2005, the Gavrilovic Association of Former Workers, just under 2,000, filed a lawsuit against Croatia at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The court accepted the lawsuit, and the former employees ask the Court to annul the decision of the Constitutional Court of Croatia (number: U.III.2768 / 2002) of 30 June 2004, as well as the decisions and rulings that preceded it.  According to the lawsuit, the Constitutional Court of Croatia, by its decision, "violated the provisions of the Constitution of Croatia to their detriment." Namely: the provisions of Article 3 on the inviolability of property, Article 14 on the equality of citizens before the law, Article 19 which specifies that "individual acts of state administration and bodies with public authority must be based on law", and the provisions of Article 48 of the Constitution guaranteeing the right of ownership.  If the Court in Strasbourg rules in favor of the former workers, ie against Croatia, then the "Gavrilović" case will return to the beginning, more precisely to the situation that existed in 1991 when Đuro (Georg) Gavrilović, with political and judicial support, started the operation. According to the Association, the illegal takeover of what was once one of the largest meat industries in Europe.
The company suffered damage during the2020 Petrinja earthquake, but resumed its production regularly shortly afterwards.
The company's trademark logo, depicting the three-year-old girl Jelica Cekuš (cousin of Đuro Gavrilović senior) holding a winter salami, was designed by Croatian comic book author and illustratorAndrija Maurovićin 1931.