For those in travel retail who don’t know about The SEVA Group, it might come as a surprise to see the Dutch distribution-to-retail-to-real estate company positioned alongside sector giants China Duty Free Group and Qatar Duty Free as Diamond Partners at this year’s inaugural Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo.
They might be a little less surprised, however, when they discover that the Netherlands-based company’s intention is to be a top 20 travel retailer within the next five years. Given that the group only opened its first border store (at the Croatian crossing into Bosnia and Herzegovina) as recently as 2018, that’s quite some ambition. So how serious is it?
“I think you know us as a group long enough and well enough to know that we are always serious about our intentions,” replies Founder & Chairman Severino Pušić, speaking to The Moodie Davitt Report on the eve of the Virtual Travel Retail Expo.
“To have a vision, an idea and a goal is one thing but achieving it is another. There are many things that have to be put in the right place at the right time to achieve something. But, yes, we are ambitious and very serious.”
Certainly, the building blocks are in place. The SEVA Group, founded in 1997 as a local market distributor in the Balkans, today has a healthy diversity that spans wines & spirits distribution; some regional representation for other categories and brands, most notably Samsonite in the Middle East; a thriving real estate portfolio anchored in Croatia; and the state-of-the-art Rubis winery near the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Pušić may have built a highly successful family-held business but throughout those 23 years he has steadfastly maintained a low public profile. In a rare interview in 2018, I described him as ‘travel retail’s low-profile, high achiever’.
Is that a fair summary, I ask him as we discuss life and business two years and one global pandemic on? Is he a man who eschews the public limelight and prefers to let his actions, his results and his people do the talking?
“That’s absolutely fair comment, and I definitely like to keep it this way,” he replies. During the course of the interview, he does, in fact open up to a rare degree, but not before continually deflecting much of the credit for The SEVA Group’s success to the team he has built around him over the years.
“From my perspective, simply being willing to achieve something, working hard for it, having a clear vision and having enough money to do things, is still not enough,” he says. “You have to have the right people around you in the right place. And that’s something that we have been building for years now. That was our biggest investment.
“We were very patient, and we were creating the right teams in different sports,” he says, his football background showing in his choice of analogy. “But we were also creating the right captains of the different teams.
“That’s been in place for several years now. Now we can seriously kick off within the platform that we have created. So we will be investing further but I emphasise that it will be within this platform – what we will not do is simply jump from one project to another. Our investments will be about going deeper with what we have already created and bringing all of that to the next level.”
Like many entrepreneurs, Pušić places immense value on human trust and on a highly select group of managers around him. They have to be the correct fit in terms of values, work ethic, and a disciplined approach to business. The most recent addition to that group came in the form of Roger Jackson, the highly regarded former Diageo Global Travel senior executive who in September 2019 was named Managing Director for Organico Solutions, The SEVA Group’s newly created Dubai-based Middle East division. Jackson also heads the channel-specific Organico Travel Retail business.
That appointment underlined both the company’s ambition and its approach, says Pušić. He had known Jackson through the key Diageo relationship for several years and identified him early as someone who would strengthen the business greatly when the right moment arrived.
“Every region has its own challenges and we recognised that with the Middle East about five years ago,” Pušić says. “It’s not the easiest region but it’s a beautiful region. I love the challenges. I always use the same principle when I want to build up something… and Roger’s appointment is a perfect example of what I just mentioned about taking an existing platform, and then going deeper.”
In short, Pušić had identified his captain, the perfect individual to take an existing operation and raise it to a new level. “Maybe God gave me a blessing that I don’t need long to recognise a talent and a good human being,” he says.
“Roger is a hard-working man with a lot of knowledge. He just fitted perfectly in our SEVA family and I’m very, very happy that we have someone like him and his wife Natalie (Organico Travel Retail General Manager) onboard in The SEVA Group family.
“Organico Solutions is growing every day and we will have big news soon for global travel retail in the Middle East region,” he adds [an announcement expected in coming days -Ed].
Pušić’s constant use of the word ‘family’ to describe his company is revealing. “This is to me the point,” he says. “There are some amazing people around the world who are very highly qualified, and who I respect a lot, but I unfortunately have said no to them joining The SEVA Group. Because that’s not enough for me; I need human beings who can trust each other and who will be there for each other.
“And the best example of that has been over the last few difficult months. Those are the moments when all the truths come out and all the lies fall down on the floor. And what remains is pure. So I want people who can trust me and that I can trust.”
How much of an advantage during crisis is it to be a strong, well-funded, family-held player? In terms not only of being prepared to ride out a storm rather than fretting about the next quarter’s results but also being able to seize opportunity?
“There is a huge difference in being a corporate business compared with a private, family-owned business,” Pušić responds. “Despite the size of our group today, I believe we can still act like a speedboat, and keep our flexibility. Do we always succeed? Honestly, no, and that’s because of the size of what we have created. But I really want us to be as flexible as possible.”
Maintaining the qualities and values that drove a company’s emergence is inevitably a test once a certain scale is reached and Pušić admits there have been some lessons in that regard.
“That’s maybe something for me to learn as well, in the next period for our company. Keep doing what you do best. Keep treating people in a way that you were treating them before. And most of all, keep both feet on the ground – do not change your personality, because that’s what you are and what people respect you and maybe love you for.
“And that’s what I want from us in this group. So, yes, we have serious plans, but I really expect every single one of us to keep their feet on the ground.”
The sense of family is again manifested in Pušić’s decision to maintain full staffing levels and salaries over recent months, despite the deep impact that COVID-19 has had on the group. Give loyalty and you get loyalty is his mantra. “It’s my responsibility,” he comments.
“If I am not able to do that, then I must have done something wrong in the past. Ask yourself, how have you been running your company [pre-crisis]? If you are running a company that earns 100 Euros but spends 150 year in, year out, it doesn’t matter how great your businesses, it will be troubled.
“But if you do it in the opposite way, then you will not have a problem to survive the problems of recent months. It’s just a matter of adjustment. And that’s basically what we have done.”
COVID-19’s impact on The SEVA Group varies considerably by division, Pušić points out. The real estate business has been entirely resilient, at least to now, but the group’s global travel retail business, like everyone’s, has been right in the firing line of dramatically reduced passenger traffic.
“That’s the fact of the moment, and we can’t change anything about it,” Pušić reflects. “What we can achieve is to make sure that everyone remains calm, that people don’t get in a panic mode. And that’s basically what we have done. That was my number-one priority, to make sure that everyone stayed calm and to explain to them that there was zero reason to panic.”
That’s precisely how it has played out, he says. The crisis has also allowed management the time to focus on aspects of the business that required improvements that had lain on hold due to the sheer pace of development pre-crisis. “So from that perspective, I’m very happy, but business-wise, COVID is a disaster for everyone. But, hey, shit happens – you cannot change that.”
Turning personal
It does, and The SEVA Group founder has dealt with it more than most. Unexpectedly, the interview is about to get personal. While respecting his reluctance to talk too much about himself, I push Pušić a little about his fascinating life story (also see panel below).
It’s the narrative of a Mostar boy who grew up to be a professional footballer in the Netherlands and Germany, who later enlisted in the Royal Netherlands Army, who turned small-scale entrepreneur and then grew it into a diversified multinational, powerhouse. What’s driven him down those years? So what is the flame that burns bright within Severino Pušić to achieve what he has?
There is a long silence. This is ground he’s wary of. “Well obviously, it’s impossible to answer this question and not get into my personal life,” he begins. “The fact that I really have a great family… that is where the values that I have today come from. Growing up on the streets of Mostar was at the same time the most beautiful thing that has happened to me. They are different streets, and maybe not the ones that other people may be used to, but there’s something both beautiful and tough about them. You learn to survive. Maybe it sounds strange, the people are hard, they are tough, but everything was quite honest.”
Born in February 1977, Pušić was a free-spirited teenage boy when the atrocity of war cast its horrendous shadow over the former Yugoslavia in 1991. Mostar, in common with all towns and cities of the region, was drawn rapidly into the escalating hostilities and by April 1992 was the subject of open warfare.
“When you are 14 or 15 years old, and something like that gets broken, you feel for the first time completely powerless, controlless. Total panic and chaos. And here I’m using the same word that I used earlier when I said that I did not want people to get into panic mode because of COVID.
“And then people started doing some really stupid things. And that was the situation in the former Yugoslavia. You just follow, you don’t think you just do, you don’t even ask. Later, I said that this is something that will never ever happen again to me and my family. And obviously… life being life…”
His voice trails off, his eyes moisten. These are hard memories, formative ones.
“Well, this is the reason my friend, why I don’t want to talk about those things. To say what? You know… you can’t bring anyone back; you can’t do anything about it…
Listening to those words and having spent significant time in his company, it is clear that those experiences have forged in Pušić an inner steel based on raw honesty and a perspective on life that perhaps only those who have known real troubles can appreciate.
“So to get back to your question, what has driven me? Well, life has driven me. My character is my character. And when I start doing something I do not stop before I achieve what I want.”
Besides his blood family, another key influence has been his wife, Vanya. “Honestly, I may succeed, business-wise without my wife but I guarantee you that I wouldn’t be a happy man like I am. My wife has always offered unbelievable support. And our kids have brought back to me the joy and the emotions that unfortunately, due to some crazy situations in life, you just lose.”
It was that joy and love of his wife and children (14, 18 and 21) that led Pušić to a life-changing decision in 2019. From September that year, he decided that his trusted Board of Directors would take complete charge of the daily business, allowing him to step back.
“If I was doing this for another 5 or 10 years, I’m not sure what little would have remained of Severino as a human being, as a person, as a father as a husband, as a brother, as a son”
“For the business, it was absolutely the necessary thing to do,” he recalls. “Not only for me personally, but for the group as well. Because the group was depending too much on me. And size-wise we were not small anymore. At the same time, you kind of take the speed out of everything because you have to make every decision. And there are plenty of people waiting for you to answer. So it was not right.
“There is something else that has to happen as well,” he explains. “Suddenly, last September I realised, wait a second, it’s just not enough. They have to let me go as well.”
‘They’ being his management team, grown used – for understandable reasons – to relying on their boss for ultimate decision making. “I sat down with every single one and made sure that they let me go as well. They were not doing that on purpose, they were not even realising what they were doing. After that, the process was fine.”
But deciding to let go and then actually doing it is a notoriously difficult process for those consumed by their work and Pušić was no exception. “I have to tell you, honestly, that October and November last year was the toughest time mentally in my life,” he says. “That sounds crazy considering everything I’ve been through, but it was hard. Obviously when you’re going a thousand kilometers per hour in your head every single day – and that’s me – people will be advising you that you have to slow down, that you have to break it into parts and do it piece by piece. I… can’t… do… that…”
The slow and deliberate enunciation of the words sums up the inner turmoil, he felt. “In October and November I was sitting at home, someone who had been travelling for I don’t how many years or how many days a year, all over the planet, suddenly sitting at home, week after week, day after day. And I was going crazy!
“So then you start processing that and asking, ‘What am I hoping for?’ And then you start realising the saddest part is that your work is your everything, your hobby, your profession.”
He continues, laughing at the memory, “And I was thinking, ‘Wow, what a great achievement Severino, you have done such a great thing you stupid *!*!, you’re not even able to survive two weeks in a row at home. But today, I am so happy that I made that decision. Because if I was doing this for another 5 or 10 years, I’m not sure what little would have remained of Severino as a human being, as a person, as a father as a husband, as a brother, as a son.”
The answer lay in bringing things down to earth, literally, working in the garden, planting tomatoes, paprika and generally just rediscovering such simple pleasures in life. Vanya helped too. “My wife seriously deserves a bronze statue,” he says.
The pace of a pandemic
Mission accomplished by December. But things were about to change. “January comes, and everything started moving forward. All our businesses were still good, our people happy and enjoying their new roles and responsibilities. Everything is going great. And then bang. COVID happens. Everything shuts down.
“I promise you, personally I had zero problems mentally with COVID. As I say, shit happens. You ask, ‘Is everyone healthy around us?’ At that moment, everyone was healthy. Then you start thinking, ‘Okay, what do we need to do to stay healthy?’ Because no one knows what’s going on. You know what kind of chaos it was.”
Pušić’s mantra about order kicked in. “You just make sure that everyone feels comfortable, that no-one loses their job or has to give up part of their salary – the basic fundamentals for humans – and start building back up from there.
“We were able to do that. I know that there are plenty of companies that didn’t have our position and I understand that. But I am talking about The SEVA Group. Ok, there were a few companies in the group that needed support financially, but we sorted it out. And today, honestly, there are zero companies in The SEVA Group with a financial problem.
“But this comes from how you build your business and your efficiency in the first place. And by your efficiency, I mean in your cost structure as well as in production and other sides of your business. If that’s all in place, you will always know where your break-even is.
“And it’s on that basis that we start every single year in terms of new plan presentations. Do you have a cost increase? If yes, why? And if that answer is solid, then we will talk further about your growth. But if you need to double your cost and double your turnover to grow your profit, you must ask, why do you want to double? Can you justify that?
“Why not growth of 5% or 10% or 20%, which is doable? Do you still want to have control of your business or not? If you want to lose control of your business, then, yes, you should start doubling every year. Those are basic principles in business which I learned on the road by making those mistakes and then setting them right.”
I close by suggesting to Pušić that it must be satisfying to see The SEVA Group’s name up there in lights alongside China Duty Free Group and Qatar Duty Free at the Virtual Travel Retail Expo. “Absolutely, I am very proud,” he replies.
Typically, he deflects any credit, saying that The Moodie Davitt Report’s creation of the event is what created the opportunity in the first place. “I remember you calling me when this project was in its baby shoes. You dared to think out of the box and about the future of global travel retail.
“All that we did was to support your idea from day one. It’s easy to be friends and support each other when everything is going perfectly fine. You don’t need to do anything and it’s happening because it’s mutual interest. But neither you nor I knew at that moment that this would be successful. And because you were believing in it, I was believing.
“But yes, I am extremely proud, especially of our people. Because without them, you can bring yourself to a particular level but if you want to go bigger than that you need the right people around you. If we believe that we can achieve something, then we should try to achieve it and time will show how far we can go.”
Severino Pušić’s compelling story to date, both personal and professional, suggests the answer is very far indeed.
| Severino Pušić – the man behind a burgeoning business empire As documented in a then landmark profile in 2018 by The Moodie Davitt Report (Severino Pušić had previously declined all interviews), the man who started what is now The SEVA Group, grew up in Mostar, spending the first 15 years of his life in what is today the cultural and economic capital of the Herzegovina region.
After war broke out in the region through 1992 and 1993, the young man, a highly talented schoolboy footballer, moved to the Netherlands to stay with his brother Marino (also a top-level player). He would ultimately make his big breakthrough at professional level as a forward for Leverkusen in North Rhine-Westphalia.  There, he rubbed shoulders with big-name German football identities such as Ulf Kirsten [the renowned former German footballer and manager], Rudy Feller and Bernd Schuster. The world was (in some senses literally) at his feet. But all the while, Pušić felt increasingly guilty being away from family and country during the darkness and tragedy of war. “I started struggling with myself, because of the war back home,” he recalled in that interview. “After a few months, I didn’t want to play anymore. The family and everyone else were pressuring me, telling me, ‘You should keep playing. People are commenting on how good you are.’ But quite simply at that moment I was not interested in the game at all.” Two years into a highly promising football career, Pušić decided his destiny did not belong on the pitch. By the end of 1996 he was back in Mostar, where he started a small-scale business, mainly in liquor and tobacco distribution. Soon after, he began investing in property on the beautiful Croatian coast. His sojourns were not over, though. Pušić returned to the Netherlands for a lengthy stint in the Royal Netherlands Army, later entering a business in the country dealing in exotic imported fruit and vegetables and spending time in Vietnam. Having learned the ropes of running an international business, Pušić sold out and returned to his favoured liquor & tobacco sector, eventually basing The SEVA Group in The Netherlands from 2006 as a distribution business centred on the Balkans region. His big break came when he convinced Frans de Groen (“an amazing guy”) from the then family-owned Grolsch Brewery (it sold to SABMiller in 2008 for €800 million-plus) to grant the new group distribution exclusivity for the former Yugoslavian countries. It was the start of something very big. |
