⭐ 17: The Slovin House Signboard

The unionist tourism of Slovin Bizeljsko-Brežice, a former successful company

This successful Brežice-based company – which was extremely important in the second half of the 20th century and was renamed and reorganised several times in the period from its establishment in the post-war period until its bankruptcy in 2009, its last name being Vino Brežice – was founded as a basic organisation of associated labour (abbreviated as BOAL; TOZD in Slovenian) TOZD Slovin Bizeljsko - Brežice on 1 January 1974. It bore this name until the late 1970s, when it was reorganised and renamed DO Bizeljsko – as part of SOZD Slovin (SOZD stands for Composite Organisation of Associated Labour). During the period when unionist tourism (i.e. company-based or labour union-based tourism) was booming, this company had its own holiday facilities where its workers could stay during their well-deserved holidays. One of the company's holiday locations was the village of Selce near Crikvenica on the Croatian coast, as evidenced by a house signboard.

For heritage enthusiasts:

The company Vino-Sadje Brežice, whose aim was to purchase wine from winemakers and provide them with professional assistance, was founded in late 1946. The company covered a large geographical area, i.e. from Brežice to Šmarje in the Štajerska region and the entire area to Grosuplje in the Dolenjska region. From its establishment to the end, the company was connected with the Brežice Castle as it used the castle cellars, which had been set up for the company's purposes (work on this started in 1947). From this year on, the castle also housed a cooper's workshop. After modest beginnings and some notable successes at a later time – in 1956, the company obtained an export license and significantly increased the quantities of wine purchased from winemakers – it went bankrupt in 1963. Immediately after the bankruptcy, a new company was established: Brežice Vino. To facilitate its activities and operations, the company looked into the options of linking up with other businesses. In early 1965, it thus merged with the company Slovenija Vino from Ljubljana. The facility in Brežice was initially in charge of the production and processing of regional wines (cviček, Bizeljsko red and Bizeljsko white wines). When the Bizeljsko Agricultural Cooperative joined Slovenija Vino in 1971, conditions were created for the merger of the two facilities in Brežice and Bizeljsko into a basic organisation of associated labour (abbreviated as BOAL or TOZD in Slovenian) TOZD Slovin Bizeljsko - Brežice, which took place in early 1974. This organisational form lasted only a few years; according to the Dolenjski list newspaper, as early as 1979, the company was already called Slovin DO Bizeljsko - Brežice.  
 

Brežice, construction of Slovin Brežice's cellar and bottling facility, 3 Mar 1976, Photo by Vlado Podgoršek. A copy is kept by the Posavje Museum Brežice.

During this five-year period, a large number of investments were made. A state-of-the-art soft-drink bottling facility was inaugurated in 1979 on the occasion of the municipal holiday. Later that same year, the company started bottling two famous Slovenia drinks – Cockta and Jupi, as well as the non-domestic Schweppes. This completed a major investment, which had started with the construction of a grape processing plant and continued with the construction of a cellar with a capacity of 200 wagons of wine. In the subsequent period (after 1981), a new wine bottling line was built and other major investments were made. The presented signboard thus dates back to this short period of the company's history. Anton Škofca (from Globoko, municipality of Brežice) worked in the Slovin company between 1978 and 1988 as a commercial manager. Mr Škofca told us that the company, which employed 400 workers in its heyday, devoted a lot of attention to the employees' sports and recreation and, even more so, to unionist tourism (i.e. company-based or labour union-based tourism). When he was with the company, accommodation facilities in Selce near Crikvenica were no longer used, however, quite a few company caravans were set up in the village of Lopar on Croatian the island of Rab for the employees to use. The employees loved using the available holiday facilities.
Vino Brežice was registered as an independent company in 1990. In 2009, bankruptcy proceedings were started following the company's poor business results.
 

An advert for products of the company TOZD Slovin Bizeljsko - Brežice, Dolenjski list, 28 Oct 1976, Vol. XXVII, Issue 44 (1423).	An Adria Cooler bottle, circa 1980. A mixed, flavoured wine-fruit beverage; bottled by Slovin ʽBizeljsko-Brežiceʼ n. sol.o. Inv. No.: Z4: 4383.

 For more information see:

• Damijan Jože, Čanji Vanesa, Klemenčič Vlado: Portreti dosežkov v gospodarskem razvoju Slovenije 2013–1969, Ljubljana: Gospodarska zbornica Slovenije, 2014, str. 195.
• Dejak Vlasta: Pod devetimi zastavami. Posavje – 1900–1990, Vodnik po stalni razstavi novejše zgodovine, Brežice: Posavski muzej Brežice, 2014.
• Teropšič Tomaž: Gospodarstvo in začetki samoupravljanja v občini Brežice, Brežice: Posavski muzej Brežice, 1987.
• Dolenjski list, 28. 10. 1976, leto XXVII, št. 44 (1423).
• Dolenjski list, 25. 10. 1979, leto XXX, št. 43 (1576). 

Prepared by: Mihaela Kovačič
 
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