Indeed, this seems to be one of the most striking characteristics of the Slovenian economy. At least 20 Slovenian companies enjoy leading tech and/or market positions on a global scale. Interestingly, apart from the niche leading position these companies do not share many obvious similarities – they operate in different industries, they differ in size and in background. A few notable developed brands. Alpina, for example, is the world’s leading producer of Nordic ski boots. The market position of Alpina is strongly enhanced by the fact most of the best national sports teams in Nordic skiing use Alpina boots. Another such brand is ski manufacturer Elan. While certainly not the world’s largest ski producer, Elan is indisputably among the tech leaders: several breakthrough innovations such as carving and folding skis came from Elan. Another relatively strong brand is Argeta – the world’s largest pâté producer is owned by the Croatian Atlantic group after the take-over of Droga Kolinska, a Slovenian food manufacturer which created the successful pâté brand.

Most of the global niche leaders operate in high-tech industries. One of Slovenia’s best companies is Pipistrel, a global tech leader in ultralight plane development with the world’s first serial production of electric airplanes. EKWB is the world’s leading producer of premium computer cooling systems. Several companies develop leading measurement systems: normally they are leaders in their respective niches. Instrumentation Technologies is the leader in the somewhat esoteric area of beam diagnostics in particle accelerators. Dewesoft is the tech leader in data acquisition devices for the most demanding applications in industry, power engineering, and logistics. Cosylab develops control software for proton cancer therapy systems. Jafral is number one in bacteriophage production, one of the key research areas in modern biotechnology. Bia Separations is another example of a biotech niche leader: the company is now a part of the German Sartorious group, the leading producer of monolithic chromatographic columns, essential for the production, purification, and analysis of large biomolecules. Another medical tech company is Fotona, one of the leading global producers of medical lasers.

An area with several champions coming from Slovenia is related to electro motors. Kolektor is the leading producer of commutators, a key part of electro motors and generators. One of the world’s largest manufacturers of electro motors for vacuum cleaners is Domel. Slovenian companies Elaphe and GEM Motors play pioneering roles in the development of in-wheel car drives. Elaphe’s solution is used by US-made Lordstown pick-ups, the most serious attempt to use in-wheel motors in mass-produced cars. In contrast, Hidria’s cold start system is built into every third modern diesel car produced on the planet. And when talking of cars and motorbikes one cannot ignore Akrapovič, a global leader in high-end exhaust systems. Over 140 world champion titles in various categories of motorsport were won with machines equipped with Akrapovič tech.

A few not so glamorous yet no less important global leaders: Tajfun is the world's largest manufacturer of single- and double-drum logging winches. Another Slovenian logging winch producer with a leading role in its narrow niche is Krpan. Files are unglamorous everyday products – in most of them, you can find lever arch mechanisms produced by Slovenian company Niko. Eti is one of the leading producers of fuses and circuit breakers.

This article is not a complete overview of Slovenian niche leaders – we could only focus on a selection. In particular, by adding start-ups we could add many more names because in the dynamic world of these enterprises you either create your own global niche or perish. The bustling local start-up scene carries a clear promise that in a few years the number of local-global champions could be much higher.