How Veloris employed their Croatian account manager and set up a lease car through Rivermate's EOR

About Veloris

Veloris, formerly Ecobat Battery, is Europe's largest independent supply network of batteries and support. The company connects battery manufacturers to end customers across applications ranging from automotive and commercial vehicles to marine, industrial equipment, and energy storage, carrying brands including Bosch, Exide, Lucas, Numax, and VARTA. Its customers include original equipment manufacturers, vehicle parts suppliers, automotive dealerships, and materials handling specialists, served through hubs located across the continent.

Veloris NL B.V. is the company's Dutch entity, where Brian Vieira, HR Manager Benelux, manages HR for the region – including, since January 2026, an account manager based in Croatia.

The challenge

Veloris needed to employ an account manager in Croatia, and they had no internal knowledge of Croatian employment rules. The payroll and the employment contract were the two areas of concern: without local legal expertise, the team could not be confident either would be set up correctly.

Before finding Rivermate, Brian Vieira searched extensively – ChatGPT, Google, every resource he could find – for a provider with genuine knowledge of Croatian legal rules, or a partner based in Croatia who had it. The search itself was the first obstacle: it was difficult to find a company with the right contacts and experience in Croatia at all.

What was at stake

For a company with no Croatian entity and no Croatian legal knowledge, the exposure was in getting the fundamentals wrong from day one: an employment contract that didn't meet local requirements, and payroll calculated incorrectly under rules nobody at Veloris could verify.

The lease car raised the stakes further. Under Croatian rules, private use of a company car is a taxable benefit in kind regulated under the Income Tax Act: its value must be determined under Article 22 of the Income Tax Regulation (for an operating lease, 20% of the monthly lease installment including VAT), added to the base for income tax and contributions, and reported to the Croatian Tax Administration through the JOPPD form. Incorrect recording or calculation can lead to significant penalties for the employer.

In an EOR arrangement this complexity lands on the Employer of Record, which is one reason many providers decline car arrangements outright.

Why they chose Rivermate

The decision came after a single meeting. Brian Vieira's contact person walked him through the Rivermate system and the process end to end, and in his words, after that one meeting everything was crystal clear. He had no remaining uncertainties before starting.

The reasons he names for choosing Rivermate are service and availability: help is there when it is needed. The account-side view matches – what keeps Veloris with Rivermate is the personal contact with their Customer Success Manager, Dasola Jikiemi, and Rivermate's willingness to be more flexible than other EOR providers.

How Rivermate helped

Veloris's account manager in Croatia was employed through Rivermate from January 2, 2026, with Customer Success Manager Dasola Jikiemi handling the account on Rivermate's side. The onboarding was smooth, and Brian Vieira notes he received all onboarding documents fast. Setup was quick and turnaround times have stayed good since.

The defining piece of work was the lease car. Arranging a company car for an employee on an EOR arrangement is one of the more difficult requests in this industry – the employment sits with the EOR rather than the client, which complicates both the agreement and the payroll treatment behind it. Rather than declining the request, Dasola Jikiemi worked with Rivermate's legal partner in Croatia to map out what the options were, then arranged a meeting with Veloris to walk through them in detail. Rivermate handled the car agreement and the payroll behind it. Short lines of communication and thinking outside the box are what made the setup work.

Day to day, Brian Vieira describes the working relationship as friendly, supportive, flexible and always available, and the biggest surprise was working with someone who actually knows the company.

What this means for similar companies

If you're a Benelux or European company hiring a single employee in Croatia – a country where you have no entity and no local legal knowledge – you face the same questions Veloris did: whether the contract and payroll will hold up under rules you can't verify yourself, and whether benefits like a company car can be offered at all under an EOR arrangement.

Rivermate handles this pattern with named contacts and a legal partner on the ground in Croatia. The lease car is a good test of any EOR: many providers decline the request outright. See the Croatia country guide and the Employer of Record product page for how employment, payroll, and benefits work in practice.