Jovica Bozic, owner of Bozic i Sinovi - Fast and happy

Serbia is the best country to work and make money in because there is no healthy competition and you can be better than existing companies in any business, provided that the business is based on economic principles and that you work hard and honestly. A man needs to know what he wants from life and then all he wants can be achieved. This is how Jovica Bozic, owner of the company Bozic i Sinovi, sees business opportunities in Serbia.

During his 27-year work career, he has started many businesses - from a tire repair shop and a software company listed on the London Stock Exchange to the construction of villas on the Adriatic coast. This former member of the national karate team of Yugoslavia now lives in London, Belgrade, Dubrovnik and Banja Luka. He does not change his attitude and the friends he knows from his childhood. He says he is a very happy man.

In an interview for eKapija he speaks about the time when he learned to love money, how he earned it, where he traveled, how he won an English woman over, as well as about how he smuggled denim trousers from Italy, the fun he had at village dances, the people he grew up with near Pancevo...

Excellent student, karate player, civil engineer

He lived in the village of Omoljica near Pancevo from the age of two and he quickly found friends to play hide-and-seek and cowboys and indians or make mud cannons and fish in the Ponjavica river with.

- We were a normal family of workers. We lived in Manjaca near Banja Luka when my father decided we should cross the Drina river so my sister and I would not have to keep sheep and would be able to receive education and show what we were made of. We came to Banat when the industry in Pancevo was about to "collapse". Father bought an unfinished house from a German. He worked until 3 PM at the firm and then came home to work on the house. Mother was unemployed, but we had enough money to go to school and all school trips, and I believe that our parents always gave us all they had.

I was an excellent student in both primary school and the Pancevo grammar school Uros Predic.

When I turned 14, I started learning karate at the best Yugoslav club at the time - Dinamo from Pancevo, which was run by Vladimir Jorga.

- I practiced karate for 15 years. My opinion was that being a good student was not enough for a person to be complete. I was not built for basketball and volleyball and I thought of football as a sport for uneducated people. The reason why I was interested in sports was not money but my spiritual and physical development.

He often draws a parallel between business, sport and love and says that the crucial thing for all three is to choose the right moment.

Jovica Bozic and celebrated boxer Tadija Kacar won Titov Zlatnik award in 1980 as deserving athletes. Two years later, after winning a medal at the European championship and publishing the book Karate for Beginners, which represented a crown of his sports career, he decided to dedicate himself more seriously to "money making".

- My father was a carpenter and mason and wanted his son to be an engineer, which is why I enrolled in the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Belgrade. I had never engaged in civil engineering until 2008 when I started investing in construction projects in Dubrovnik.

Money earned with Golf

Bozic does not hide that he has always loved having his own money. He says he did not have any illusions typical for young people and that he did not dream of a big business and big money because he believed in the systematic work.

He earned his first money in Germany, at the time when he was still a high school student.

- I was lucky I had three uncles working and living in Germany. At the time of former Yugoslavia, students had the right to work abroad and not to pay the tax on their salary. I worked at a paper factory. Instead of working for 10 hours, which was normal, I worked for 12 and 16 hours every day. My first plan was to work for a week to earn for a holiday at the seaside, but my uncles supported me to stay longer. I worked for 2.5 months and earned DEM 6,500. When I got back home, I said: "Daddy, this is what I've earned." My father gave me his entire savings and I bought a Golf vehicle, which I later drove all around Europe.

At that time, one could travel to Trieste, Munich, Vienna, Istanbul without visa, and Bozic "used" that to buy goods, which he later sold to commission shops in Serbia.

- It was called smuggling. We went to the European countries to buy the goods that commission shops sold with a certain margin. We used to sell denim trousers, condiment, pepper in Romania and then buy other goods there to sell them somewhere else. As a student, I earned DEM 1,000 a month from that trade.

Bozic also had time to have fun because it was the time of school, sports, girls, travels, fun...

- We listened to "Bijelo Dugme", Zdravko Colic and "Riblja Corba". I loved to go to dances in my village because it was the opportunity for me to ask a girl to dance with me.

I work only for myself

- After I graduated from the faculty, I did not want to work as an engineer at a public company. Instead, I decided I would work only for myself and all the money I earn will be only mine. I observed the market and realized that only rare people were seriously engaged in the tire repairing business in the 1980's, which is why I opened the tire repair shop Auto Zeka in Omoljica, a town with 10,000 inhabitants and no such shop. I named my shop "Auto Zeka" because it was my nickname in the sport since I was very fast. I later opened new shops in Omoljica, Pancevo, Novo Selo, Kovin, Belgrade. The plan was to create a chain of service shops that could be sold to a European company. I thought we would enter Europe, but the war interrupted us.

Since he traveled a lot for sports competitions, he once saw a chance for a job in Germany.

- Germans have summer and winter tires. They throw away winter tires in summer and summer tires in winter, and they even pay to someone to take them. I started importing used tires and quickly found myself in the position to sell 9,000 tires a month in Omoljica. The first commercial ad published on a whole page in Novosti daily was ours because even then I recognized the value of marketing. Our village became famous for Auto Zeka.

Due to absence of the recycling industry, the state placed a ban on the import of tires, and Bozic started importing used computers.

- We used to buy computers from the largest leasing companies. We had 19 stores with 120 employees and registered a EUR 0.5 million turnover every year. Our company was among the 15 most profitable firms in the country in 2002. At that time I was already living in England. I met the father of my children's friend, the director of a software company. I suggested him we should form a company that would utilize the Serbian know-how and the English management.

The company Gowi Group (the acronym of "Get On With It") was set up in 2000, with the aim of producing creative software solutions. The plan was to do the programming in Pancevo and sell the software in London. After six years of operations, the fast-growing software company Gowi Group from London was sold in December 2006 for GBP 10 million.

- Production is now done in Belgrade and Pancevo. We are working for the English market. I have also founded BiS Reciklazni Centar (BiS Recycling Center) in the meantime, the company engaged in EE waste recycling.

In addition to aforementioned software company, he also opened the trade company Zeka UK Ltd. in England in the 1990's. That company used to import Umbro sports apparel and gear and sell flight simulators. He also had a company in Regensburg - Zeka UK GMBH, which was importing used and new tires and aluminum rims for passenger cars. And then he moved to Frankfurt to start the business of waste tires recycling and used computers refabricating.

When he sold Gowi Group, he was advised to invest the money in stocks, but he told them: "We in Serbia love cash." That money was invested in the land above Dubrovnik, at the border of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, where he plans to have 360 villas built.

- The first villa was built in 2008 and, ever since, we have been building houses with the view of the Adriatic Sea. Construction of the complex Dubrovnik Heights with 16 villas is underway. We also plan to open a hotel and have a golf course built in that location. Construction of golf courses in Pancevo is also in the pipeline.

Family and friends

He is of the opinion that there should be a balance between work and rest. The Bermuda Triangle islands are the destination that left the greatest impression on him because it is the place of residence of people from all around the world and the country is very clean since people there ride bicycles instead of driving cars.

Although he thought he would never be able to live outside Serbia, he moved to England because of love.

- I met my current wife Sarah when I was in Porec. She was 16 and I was 19. She was on a vacation with her family, and I was there with my karate club. I asked her for a dance and that is how everything started. We wrote to each other and I even went to England next year to visit her, but then we lost contact. I later got married, got son Nemanja, and divorced shortly afterwards. After the divorce, I focused on business. Some time has passed and I found an old letter from Sarah and her phone number in it. I phoned her and told her I was coming to see her. Sarah worked at the Buckingham Palace for five years as a member of the queen's staff. She now works at British Airways as a stewardess. We have two sons: Stefan and Aleksandar. They both speak Serbian fluently although they were born in a foreign country.

Jovica Bozic loves to go to English parties where people eat, drink, dance and chat. When in Belgrade, he usually goes to restaurants Stara Hercegovina and Madera, but he also loves talking with people from his village.

- I hang out with friends I grew with, with whom I used to steal grapes, catch fish, swim to the other side of the Danube. I love to make jokes and tell them to my friend Vukman.

He is still active in sports – he loves running, playing golf, hunting and fishing. Sometimes he wonders if he helps people around himself enough.

- I have the talent and the feeling to do the right thing at the right time. I am not a dreamer, but everything I dream of comes true.

S.O.

Božić i sinovi d.o.o. Pančevo

BiS Reciklazni Centar

BiS Adriatic

Jovica Bozic

Jovica Bozic resume

Gowi

London Stock Exchange

London

Dubrovnik

villas in Dubrovnik

Omoljica

Ponjavica

Manjaca

Uros Predic Pancevo

Dinamo Pancevo

Valdimir Jorga

karate

Tadija Kacar

Karate for Beginners

Titov Zlatnik

Golf

golf courses

Trieste

Munich

Vienna

Istanbul

commission shop

Bijelo dugme

Zdravko Colic

Riblja Corba

fishing

hunting

Auto Zeka

Novo Selo

Zeka UK Ltd

Zeka UK GMBH

Dubrovnik Heights

Buckingham Palace

Nemanja Bozic

Stefan Bozic

Aleksandar Bozic

British Airways

Stara Hercegovina

Madera