Marketing Contracts Reveal: GRAS Had to Use Old Trams to Fulfill Contract with Banja Luka Company

(Patria) - GRAS General Manager Senad Mujagić sent a letter in January 2025 to the Speaker of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly (KS) Elvedin Okerić, informing him that the Ministry of Transport of KS, based on a public call, had concluded a contract with the marketing agency Info Media Group d.o.o. Banja Luka for advertising on and in GRAS vehicles.

"The responsibilities of KJKP GRAS Sarajevo related to the mentioned contract include:
‣ announcing the entry and exit of workers into GRAS facilities who apply foils on and in GRAS vehicles;
‣ compiling a monthly report on the operation of vehicles with applied advertising (tram, trolleybus, and bus) in traffic, based on which the monthly vehicle rental is invoiced," Mujagić stated in the letter sent on January 6, 2025.



Information circulating in recent days that old trams were not withdrawn from city traffic earlier precisely because of advertisements, the Minister of Transport of KS Adnan Šteta called "nonsense" - despite testimonies from GRAS workers that many of those trams are unsafe for passenger transport and often break down.

- Only technically sound vehicles go into traffic, whether they have advertisements or not. We have transported 18 million people in new trams alone so far - Šteta asserted.

However, is the issue of advertisements really as marginal as Minister Šteta tries to present it?

Through contracts with the Banja Luka company Info Media Group, space for advertising in GRAS vehicles has been rented out for years, writes Istraga.ba.

From these advertisements, GRAS generates a significant portion of its annual revenue, and the calculation is simple: the more frequently trams, trolleybuses, and buses with advertisements are "rotated" in traffic, the higher the monthly rental invoices that GRAS sends for payment to the aforementioned company.

In the period from 2015 to 2019, the annual revenue from renting advertising space on the interior and exterior surfaces of vehicles, as well as renting advertising space in GRAS vehicles, ranged from a modest 12,253 KM in 2015 (when only interior advertising was allowed) to over 371,000 marks in 2018 and 202,410 KM in 2019.

In total, during those five years, GRAS's financial transactions with Info Media Group d.o.o. Banja Luka amounted to nearly one million marks.



In July 2023, a new five-year contract was concluded with the consortium of bidders Info Media Group d.o.o. Banja Luka and Megatone d.o.o. Banja Luka, which won the tender from the Ministry of Transport of KS for the rental of exterior and interior surfaces on public transport vehicles in Sarajevo Canton.

"For commercial advertising, a minimum of 80 cantonal company vehicles of various types are available to the most favorable bidder. The Ministry and the Cantonal Company guarantee that the vehicles will be in operation 360 days a year," stated the notice of award to the most favorable bidder at the time.

According to the public call, the starting price for the rental of at least 80 GRAS vehicles was 320,000 KM annually, excluding VAT. The bid price was not disclosed.

According to official data, in 2023, the GRAS company generated a total of 554,716 KM in revenue from secondary and auxiliary activities, which include revenue from renting advertising space.



When it comes to trams, advertisements can only be "stuck" on old ČKD trams from Czechoslovakia. On the 25 new Stadler trams from Switzerland, which were recently purchased, advertisements are not allowed - at least for now.

Therefore, by completely withdrawing old trams from traffic, which is one of the main demands made by protesters after the tragic tram accident, GRAS would not only lose a significant portion of its revenue but also jeopardize the entire contract with Info Media Group and Megatone, which, as we have already stated, was concluded for a period of five years - until July 2028.

Interestingly, the company Info Media Group was under scrutiny by investigative bodies in neighboring Croatia four years ago due to a multi-million contract for advertisements concluded with Zagreb's ZET.

An investigation was launched at the time due to suspicions that other bidders were misled during the public call that preceded the conclusion of the contract with Info Media Group, as they were told that advertisements could only be placed on old ZET trams, but they later appeared on new vehicles overnight.

We will see if Minister Šteta will now have to resort to a similar "maneuver" as the Zagreb city authorities and allow advertising on new trams as well. However, it is likely that this will not be necessary, as Šteta and the resigning Prime Minister Nihad Uk have already announced the reintroduction of old trams into service with, as they say, regular and transparent servicing and maintenance of vehicles.

Furthermore, the fact is that 25 new trams are not sufficient for the smooth operation of tram traffic, so we will inevitably see the old Czech trams on the tracks again soon - with advertisements and, let's hope, in fully technically sound condition.