Dear friends, dear shareholders,

I hope you’re keeping well and staying safe.

In these difficult times we all face (COVID-19), we should be grateful to all those who are engaged on the frontline of this battle and pay tribute to all their efforts. We need to follow the guidance on self-isolation and self-protection. Only by doing so, we will help ourselves and those around us. Only through unity, solidarity and mutual assistance will we come out of it stronger.

The situation in Bale has been pretty quiet now. Luckily, none has been infected so far. The past autumn and winter months at Mon Perin have been marked by hard work in preparation for the upcoming season so that our guests would be pleasantly surprised by new amenities, enhanced appearance of the landscape and all those premises available to guests during their stay with us. Unfortunately, the circumstances in which we find ourselves right now could not have been predicted. Nevertheless, aware that after the storm, the sun will shine again, we’ve undertaken activities to maintain optimism, promote unity, solidarity and mutual assistance for the common good.

At the end of February, we estimated the difficulties we would be facing both as individuals and as a community, as well as difficulties Mon Perin, in which you are a shareholder, would be facing. Unfortunately, our estimates have proven right so far.

This plague in the form of a disease and the resulting plight affects each and every one of us. I hope many will find a motive for a fresh start by believing in values they once cherished or values they are still about to discover through this time of self-isolation. I hope also that we’ll take stock of many or at least some of our own shortcomings, wrong actions or even wrong assumptions and judgements, both in respect of people who surround us and in respect of our work or life in general.

I’m convinced that also in the Mon Perin’s principles, purpose of existence and activity we’re going to find values and motivations that will become part of our lives both throughout this period of self-isolation and at a time of a new start.

In our thinking, our estimate at first was that only the 2021 season would yield revenues to Mon Perin. In searching for a solution for the period until then, the common thread was solidarity, unity and mutual assistance. The imperative was to keep the employees, preserve jobs and Mon Perin, as well as to help the community within our possibilities.

Thus, all employees were provided with remuneration and additional tasks even before the Croatian government introduced business support measures, for which we are grateful. Fruit and vegetable production has been intensified to maintain employment and secure a new source of income. Free delivery of products to the most vulnerable has been ensured.

Although the Municipality of Bale decided to slash the Mon Perin’s lease costs by 50% during the epidemic, it has been decided to donate the difference to the Municipality of Bale in order not to reduce the living standard of our population.

To the Pula hospital medical staff, we’ve made accommodation capacities available so that they and their family members can take a rest from the hard and praiseworthy work they’re doing for all of us. The Mon Perin Foundation, of which I’m the sole founder, has secured a donation for the necessary medical equipment.

To overcome this season and prepare for the next one, besides reducing costs, postponing existing investments, making pay cuts for the period in which there is no work, an additional effort of all of us – the shareholders of Mon Perin – is necessary.

I suggested to the Supervisory Board, and the Supervisory Board accepted, that the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders does not decide on the payment of dividends this year, which means that dividends would not be paid this year. I know that everyone has been counting on a dividend, but as employees and managers have been counting on salaries, wages and bonuses, and unanimously agreed on reductions amounting to up to 70%, I believe you’ll agree with my thinking and with the Supervisory Board’s thinking, that also when it comes to the dividend, solidarity, unity, and reciprocity in providing mutual assistance must be demonstrated. Therefore, I call on all of you – the shareholders of Mon Perin – to accept the Supervisory Board’s proposal for non-payment of dividends and to support the activities that have been undertaken in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Even in these challenging times, when it is not quite certain as to how business activities in the tourism and hospitality industry will be carried on in the future, Mon Perin continues to nurture participatory, social, mutual and sustainable entrepreneurship. We’re convinced that these are distinct features that every society will have to uphold in the new times to come because, without them, there is no empathy for guests, for workers, owners or the whole community.

Therefore, we should make the most of this time by thinking positively and filling each day with simple gestures of affection towards our loved ones, no matter how far they are.

I want to share these positive feelings and decisions with you. Let us be each other’s keeper and let us find you in small things: the pleasures of spring, the warmth of the sun, a kind word…

The famous writer A.S. Pushkin once wrote:

“Everything shall pass and go away.
All worries and fears will disappear, the roads will become straight again and the gardens will be full of flowers again.

Let us appeal to common sense for help.
Let us fight the disease with the power of knowledge.
And let us overcome these difficult days that are putting us to the hard test together as a family.

We’ll come out purer and wiser.
We should not succumb to darkness and fear.
Let us lift our spirit and we will feel closer to each other!

And may all of us celebrate life gathered around the festive table. And may the Almighty send a bit of happiness in every home!”

All this will pass and I’m convinced that we’ll be proud of our actions and able to smile again.

I send you my warmest greetings and positive thoughts and continue to be available to you.

Plinio Cuccurin
President of the Supervisory Board