The eldest son Boštjan is Chief Technology Officer and Head of Production. He is such an expert that other members of the family call him “the golden hand of the Pergers”. Lucian explains: “Father always said that teaching his apprentice to be better than him is the mark of a master craftsman and Boštjan really makes products of premium quality. My sister Ines takes care of the confectionery business and everything related to bonbons and lollipops and I manage the company and make sure that everything keeps running.” His girlfriend Zala is also employed in the company, taking care of marketing, and when the next, 10th generation is not in school, they lend a helping hand.
“All our ideas are passed from generation to generation. We learn from tradition, and at the same time focus on developing new products with added value and investing in the market, which is a great challenge. Because we make such specific niche products, we are often paving a new path, creating consumer needs and helping designing buying habits. This means that we often create our own market and shape consumer habits,” explains Lucian. “Our every product has its own story,” adds Hrabroslav. For example, he likes to tell visitors how he fell into a large cauldron filled with scorching hot candy mass when he was a child. Luckily, the story has a happy ending. “You need to put your heart into your work, be innovative and be different. Our stories are real; people can feel that,” explains Hrabroslav.
Designer candle by Oskar Kogoj
For two and a half centuries, the Perger family has maintained both ownership of the company and their old recipes for honey cookies, honey bread decorations, energy candles and bio bonbons made from seven different herbs, which are picked in the Pohorje hills by students. “All our products are hand-made down to the last detail. Buyers really appreciate that fact, especially those from abroad,” points out Lucian. A couple of years ago, they also opened a museum dedicated to honey confectionery in Slovenj Gradec, which saw around 17,000 visitors annually before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The tourism side of their business is overseen by Hrabroslav, who believes in connecting the craft with tourism.
The Pergers’ innovative spirit always leads them to seek new challenges and develop new products. Their energy candle made from 100% natural beeswax, enriched with honey scent, and designed by the famous Slovenian designer Oskar Kogoj is a great sales hit, but they are best known for their organic honey-dough biscuits, which they export to Austria, Germany and Switzerland. They can even be found at the prestigious KaDeWe department store in Berlin.
State Protocol Department, Pavarotti, Dalai Lama…
The Pergers like to work with the best. Their collaboration with the famous designer Oskar Kogoj began around 20 years ago, when completely by chance, Hrabroslav walked into the Oskar Kogoj Gallery in Gorica, to buy a gift for his late wife Leonora. The items he saw at the gallery took his breath away and he immediately wanted to meet the master who made them. Two years later, this meeting led to development of the energy candle with a unique spiral design that emits constant spiritual vibrations and which has become a global hit.
“Oskar Kogoj sees in nature something that no one else notices. I asked him to help us because we like to learn from the best. A year later he called me with the inspiring idea for a candle in the shape of a spiral and this was the start of our collaboration. It was incredibly successful since it spread theword of our candles across the world. We were visited by TV teams from Austria and Germany, and the National Geographic television team stayed with us for 10 days. They shot for hours every day to make a minute-and-a-half long video about our candle. Since then we have made more than a hundred different products in collaboration with Oskar Kogoj,” says Hrabroslav.
Perger 1757 products have found their way onto the shelves of prestigious department stores in South Korea and Dubai.
Wedding candle for Donald and Melania Trump
Perger products have also travelled to other continents. Around a decade ago, the mother of Slovenian model Melania Trump ordered a wedding candle for her future son-in-law, Donald Trump. The Dalai Lama is among their notable guests, but the most memorable visitor for Hrabroslav was the opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, who is one of his favorites to listen to. “Pavarotti fell in love with our Triglav candle, which weighs 35 kilograms. He stayed for four hours and tried our honey-dough biscuits, bonbons, and honey wine. Before he left, we packed him four boxes of honey-dough biscuits and a couple of smaller candles,” says Hrabroslav.
The Pergers have also collaborated with the State Protocol Department of the Republic of Slovenia for several years, and many of their products have found their way into museums across the world. Their standing honey bread horse won first prize at the ethnography museum in Osaka, Japan, where they later held an exhibition of their products, as they also did in Los Angeles, USA. Their products are depicted on Slovenian stamps and can be seen in several Slovenian and foreign television shows, documentaries and movies, such as Cvetje v jeseni, Tantadruj and Maškarada.
When COVID-19 strikes
The first wave of the pandemic last spring came as a shock to the Perger family, as half of their activities – the entire tourism side of the business – closed practically overnight. Their tourist shops and the Perger gallery and museum had to close their doors.
But this did not dampen their entrepreneurial spirit, as they put all their energy into online sales channels. “Online sales, which helped us recover the losses caused by coronavirus, increased by 400% last year and we had to return the government’s financial support. Now we are trying to get back to where we were before the crisis. We are doing well for now, but we can see that tourism will take a long time to recover,” says Lucian. One achievement during the pandemic year which they are very proud of is their entry into such demanding and far-flung markets as South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, where hand-made products are highly appreciated. “The most prestigious department stores in South Korea sell our bonbons and honey-dough biscuits. We are also concluding agreements for energy candles and negotiating sales in Singapore and Vietnam. The contract is already signed,” says Lucian proudly.
The first sugar-free candy shop in the world
The Perger family is about to begin an important investment in a new facility that will combine production with tourism. This will be a center of experiences, where visitors can see how their products are made and there will be an apiary on the roof. One part of the center will be the first honey candy shop in the world where all the candies are made only with natural honey and without sugar. The center will be the perfect place either to just drink coffee with honey or to spend an entire day with your family.
The Pergers firmly believe in their vision of this outstanding tourist experience, which is why they have dared to tackle such a large project. They usually develop their new lines five years in advance and are currently working on products for people who are blind or visually impaired.
Summary
Perger 1757 in a nutshell: persistence, innovation, collaboration with the best, healthy food, family tradition.
