Company history
On Monday, April 11 1988, the fourth privately owned store opened in the republic of Slovenia, Yugoslavia.
Mojca Mrak opened the store in a 20 m2 workroom and called it KIKA.
This was a miracle in those socialistic times. There were no working organisations in the country who were willing to sell to a privately owned store. She was able to only sell goods from private citizens. After some months only a few artisans who produced goods decided to sell through the company.
Detectives were regular customers in the store. They were regularly seizing documents used for sales and purchases.
Illegal sales were prosecuted heavily in those times. All progressive citizens were suspected of smuggling, bootlegging and antisocialist behavior. Owning and using of foreign currency was strictly prohibited. Those were times of great lack of goods. It was impossible to receive bananas, coffee, washing powder, cement, copper plate, galvanized pipes, boilers, washing machines,...
With progressive people from the so called spring parties on the side of newspapers and television, the times started changing. In 1989 the shop signed a yearly contract with the commercial labor organization Kovinotehna. Turnover taxes had to be paid in advance. By the end of the year we were able to purchase from companies Metalka, Jeklotehna, Opremotehna, Ferimport and Ferotehna.
In the year 1989 we were able to become equal members of the Overall trade association of Slovenia.
The turnover tax law changed and members of housing associations were exempt from paying taxes for building and installation materials. Pišler, Strlič and Mrak established Žiri p.o.
During the war for Slovenia we received radiators that were even hit with bombs. After the independence we received the permit for foreign trade and we started importing goods. A special permit needed to be obtained for importing radiators. The permit was issued by the Chamber of Commerce of Slovenia.
On the day when the United Nations Security Council imposed an embargo on Serbia 3 full trucks of radiators were on their way to Slovenia. The Customs Administration gave us two options: confiscating the goods or voluntarily giving the goods to the State. We have to thank our then minister for foreign affairs, mr. Rupel, for adapting the regulation and allowing the import of goods that left the border before midnight of the day of the embargo. Because the goods crossed the border at 23:30 the company was saved from a definite collapse.
In the pictures: building the first office building Ika, trgovsko podjetje, Žiri, d.o.o., some advertisements
The sales were blooming, we worked for 14+ hours a day and the number of employees rose. We purchased our first delivery vehicle with the carrying capacity of 300kg. With the help of a trailer we were doing deliveries of over 1000 kg. Due to deliveries being made all over Slovenia we started to deliver the goods via train. Competition started to appear and deliveries needed to be done faster and faster. In 1994 we bought our first truck. Just like the sales grew, the needs of our customers grew. In 1995 we opened a warehouse and with it came our first branch office. After that we opened offices in Novo mesto (1998), Ljubljana (2000), Izola, Maribor (2002), Nova Gorica (2010), Krško (2010), Murska Sobota (2012) and Kranj (2014).
Ika group now has over 10 trucks and other delivery vehicles and we are able to deliver goods anytime anywhere in Slovenia.