Slovenia unveils best high-growth business for 2025
Docentric, a niche high-tech company from Kranj, has won the 2025 Golden Gazelle Award for best high-growth enterprise, given out by the newspaper publisher Dnevnik.
The Silver Gazelle went to biotech company Jafral and the bronze one to Acryform, a maker of acrylic windows for recreational vehicles, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.
Docentric is a leading global company specialised in reporting and document automation components and Add-Ons for Microsoft technologies. It serves 800 customers worldwide. In five years, it has increased its turnover eightfold, from less than €1 million to €6.9 million last year. Despite the high figures, Dnevnik says that the company's growth is controlled and prudent.
Last year the company, which employs more than 50 people, posted €164,251 in value added per employee.
The company's co-CEO Ana Gligorijević, who owns and runs the company together with her spouse Jurij Leskovec, said before the awards ceremony on 23 October: "Thank you for recognising that we're doing a good thing. We're doing our best and will strive to continue to do so." Gligorijević also founded Docentric together with Leskovec.
Accepting the award, she said the company's vision combined "responsible business, responsible technology and humanism". "We take a holistic view of things and build sustainable systems that put people's well-being first."
The recipient of the Silver Gazelle is the Ljubljana company Jafral, which over the past 15 years has developed into the world's leading manufacturer of custom-made bacteriophage material (viruses that destroy bacteria).
Its revenues have grown from around half a million euros to eight million euros over the past five years. Added value per employee reached almost €134,000 last year, with 99% of the company's revenue generated in foreign markets.
Acryform from Blanca, which took home the Bronze Gazelle, is Europe's second-largest supplier of acrylic windows for recreational vehicles.
It almost doubled sales over the past five years. Ninety percent of its turnover, which exceeds €25 million, is generated on the global market. Its added value reached between €48,000 and €75,000 per employee over the last four years with the company investing heavily and expanding its workforce.
President stresses importance of predictable business environment
Addressing the awards ceremony, Economy Minister Matjaž Han described the Gazelle winners as the engine of Slovenia's economy. "In addition to rapid growth, you are also distinguished by your social responsibility, your awareness of your impact on the environment, and your effort to make sure that this environment is positive for Slovenia."
The event in Ljubljana was also addressed by President Nataša Pirc Musar, who noted the tense geopolitical situation and the tensions caused by US tariffs, underscoring the importance for the state to ensure predictability at least at home as far as possible.
She raised the unstable tax and legislative environment as a problem that she said drove away investors. "Even the announcement of changes, which are rarely a relief, creates an impression of instability, so more needs to be invested to create a partnership between the state, the economy, and employees," she said.
Marking its 25th edition, the Gazelle Award has established itself as the biggest business event in the country aimed at promoting boldness, innovation, and international success of Slovenian companies, according to Dnevnik. The publisher took the Gazelles under its wing at the end of 2005.
A commission first picks six regional gazelles and the final selection at the national level is made by the Gazelle Council, composed of previous gold gazelles and prominent representatives of the academic, civil and business communities.
Last year, Hyla, a maker of high-quality water vacuum cleaners that also filter and clean the air, won the Golden Gazelle Award. The company is building a new facility near Ljubljana Airport due to a rise in global demand for its products. The building is to be completed in 2027, and 100 jobs will be created.
Photo: Bor Slana/STA
