Ten years ago Maat Rimac had no idea that the newly formed company bearing his name would eventually produce Porsche and Hyundai, which would become synonymous with another Richard Hammond accident, or has to grow so fast that he has to build a new $ 238 million campus for 2,500 employees outside the Croatian capital, Zagreb. Rimac has struggled to pay employees after a shining example of the new Croatian industry, and now he plans to build a factory to suit his reputation.
(Full disclosure: Rimac invited me to join a Teams call last week to talk about its new headquarters project. Some of the quotes in this interview have been processed for the sake of clarity. Mate Rimac was a very neat guy.)
Mate Rimac, now aware that his company is an important part of his country’s future economy, thoroughly explained the approach to building a new headquarters last week during a video call. The new head office can not just be an unpleasant cube with a logo in a corner.
“We work day and night. We work our asses off. I want people to be able to use every moment they have between meetings or to breathe or something else to enjoy their time. Not to go crazy just to be in the office all day. “I think it’s the right thing to do to spend time in nature,” Rimac said.
This means it will come with a fairly traditional factory for painting and assembling Rimac’s electric battery packs and supermotors. But the company is also planning a lot more for the space.
For the young CEO, the new company had to be a place where employees and their families could actually make use of and interact with them, rather than a place to just be watched and admired from afar, or to have a built as a product itself.
‘I respect the company, McLaren, for example, and they have an excellent campus. But it’s designed to make people not make a mess of it, “Rimac added,” We really want to design something around the people, give them the best workplace and [Architects 3LHD] understand everything in terms of requirements and so on. They were not trying to make a monument for themselves, but actually something that works for the business. And it looked beautiful. I think it was absolutely the right choice. ”
In terms of design, the Croatian architecture firm 3LHD got the job done, but it was not an easy ride for the local boys. Rimac has put together a great team to make sure that whoever has the best job is fit for the project and the local environment.
‘We did an international competition. There really were some of the best architects in the world, I would say. I did not think from the big world that some Croatians would be the best. But we made it quite professional. We had a jury. Martha was one of the jurors. But we also had a jury with independent members, such as construction people to say how feasible it is to build or expensive. We had people from the city. ”
‘We’re trying to do something bigger here, not just to build our company. But I also try to be patriotic all the way and attract other companies to come here. Unfortunately, there are very, very few foreign investments that are not related to tourism. ”
The versions make the new headquarters look like another utopian composition, like something taken from a Mass Effect game. A few features are worth calling out specifically: To begin with, the company’s test track will have public access, according to the Rimac: [test] track. One important thing is perhaps that it is fully integrated into nature and open to the public. It will probably be the only car and development facility without a fence around it, because we as a company are very, very open. ‘
That track incidentally has a special angle: ‘One of these angles is called mandatory driving angle. So if you go through it, you have to drive. You can not goes through it normally. ”
Rimac will also try to keep live sheep and geese on campus, as the architecture office has apparently determined that they are well-suited to sustain themselves in “nature”. This thing of no fence can get out of control.
Human guests visiting for an evening will be accommodated in one of the guest rooms. Except that it’s not really a room, but rather an apartment in the woods. “It’s like, glamping, let’s say,” Rimac winked. Although it’s probably not the kind of glamping that includes a chemical toilet in a reed shed.
Although the animals may not be welcome, the calf of employees is more than welcome in the nursery.
Rimac does not plan to leave the new premises once more space is needed. He said that should the need arise, more standard, boxy premises would be built for the production of batteries and power stations, but that the new campus would be the firm’s long – term home. Much of Rimac’s call was about the importance of supporting the local and national community.
There is not much industry in Croatia outside of hotels, tourism and hospitality. Rimac hopes the new facility will attract more business and attention to the country, and help the country’s PR a bit.
The proposed Rimac factory, and the current one, is a big deal: ‘If there is a foreign visit, a kind of high-level state visit, they go to the government and bring it to our company. Even now if there is no campus. What can they show them? We are the showcase of the industry, of the country. It will therefore have a much greater impact on students and universities, visitors and the general profile of Croatia. ”
Rimac did not know this was where his business would be ten years ago, but he had hope: ‘There’s a Facebook status I wrote eight years ago in 2012 or ’13. I ride my bike next to this 15th century castle. I said, ‘I have this dream, which makes no sense, and probably the chance of it happening is zero percent. But why not build the production facility next to the castle and have some offices in the castle and stuff like that? “I did not think we would grow to such a level today. But the same idea kept in my mind and we continued to work on it. So this is now the campus project. ”
Although the castle is no longer officially part of the company’s ground plan for headquarters, the land behind this alleged castle is the area where Rimac is now making its new home. That crazy dream came true, and now Rimac has the castle to look after during lunch.