Former Air Force cadet pilots putting Croatian gin on the world map

by croatiaweek
December 19, 2021
in Business

Hrvoje Bušić and Tomislav Anadolac (Photo credit: Tomislav Može)

The award-winning Croatian Old Pilot’s gin, which has won numerous International awards and was named the best gin in the world in London recently, is produced at the distillery Duh u boci in Zagreb.

Both former Croatian Air Force cadet pilots, Hrvoje Bušić and Tomislav Anadolac met more than 20 years ago at the army pilot academy in Zadar and with both being spirit enthusiasts, they decided to start their own distillery four years ago.

(Photo credit: Tomislav Može)

Old Pilot’s gin, the first spirit to come out of the Duh u boci distillery, has achieved enviable success since it was launched and can now be found on seven markets around the world, including the UK where it is available at exclusive London restaurant Boisdale.

Old Pilot’s gin, which has won 17 prestigious awards, including two gold medals this year, is also available in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Australia and Singapore.

Old Pilot’s Gin from Croatia claims gold world awards

(Photo: Old Pilot’s Gin)

Old Pilot’s gin is a London Dry Gin and is Croatia ‘in a bottle’ being distilled with a selection of hand picked Croatian botanicals that grow in the Mediterranean and continental parts of Croatia. The special selection consist of juniper, sweet and bitter oranges, lavender, olive leaves, sage and angelica.

“We want to put Croatia on the world map of premium producers of spirits. We are proud that despite the challenging years we manage to achieve annual growth of 30% to 40%. In the already mentioned process of transformation of our company, our International ‘Advisory Board’, headed by Mrs. Leonor Stjepić, has an extremely important role. The Advisory Board is extremely important to us due to the internationalisation of the business we are working on intensively,” said co-founder of Duh u boci Tomislav Anadolac.

(Photo credit: Tomislav Može)

Thanks to the funds received from EU funds for the project Strengthening the competitiveness of enterprises by investing in digital and green transition, Duh u boci will increase its presence in domestic and foreign markets, optimise business processes through digital transformation, reduce its carbon footprint and move the business in the direction of being a more sustainable business.

This week, Croatia’s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Tomislav Ćorić visited the distillery in Zagreb where he met with Bušić and Anadolac, as well as members of the Advisory Supervisory Board led by President Leonor Stjepić.

(Photo credit: Tomislav Može)

“Young and already accomplished people decided to venture into the unknown and embark on their own entrepreneurial venture out of a desire to do something better. They wanted to be the best and set the bar of expectations very high. Although they were in the lead from the beginning, since they have an enviable number of flight hours and experience with heights. Very quickly the courage paid off. It is difficult to say how successful it is to become number one in the world, even with a product that has almost no tradition in Croatia. Let this story serve as an inspiration to all future entrepreneurs,” said the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Tomislav Ćorić.

(Photo credit: Tomislav Može)

Duh u boci recently launched their first vodka under the Old Pilot’s brand. Currently, Old Pilot’s vodka is available on the Croatian market, but will soon embark on its journey to foreign markets where Old Pilot’s gin is already present.