Investment, Financing, Security and Profitability Before, During and After the Corona Crisis: Evidence from the Dairies and Cheese Making Industry of the Republic of Croatia

This paper aims to determine (in)equalities in direct indicators of vulnerability and resilience, i.e. investment and financing strategies, as well as in indirect indicators of vulnerability and resilience, i.e. security and profitability of companies from the activity class of dairies and cheese making in the Republic of Croatia in the period before, during and after the COVID-19 crisis. The application of the descriptive and inferential statistics seeks to determine changes in investment and financing strategies, security and profitability in the analysed periods. For this purpose, the financial data of the mentioned companies were used. The results reveal a significant decrease in investments and profitability in the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period and more conservative financing with regard to maturity in the pandemic and post-pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period of the COVID-19 crisis, which potentially results from and conditions the emphasis on business security at the expense of profitability. This provokes the vulnerability of investment strategies, maturity structure of financing and profitability of the observed companies to the COVID-19 crisis. On the contrary, the ownership structure of financing and solvency that persist in the observed period are perceived as resistant to the COVID-19 crisis. Detected dictates the need to develop a set of conditions for strengthening crisis resistance at all levels of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in order to achieve long-term profitability and growth.