However, the young Ivan was inclined to social sciences and literature, thus after having finished the primary school in Kolan, he enrolled for a pedagogy grammar school in the town of Rijeka. His brothers Frane and Josip supported him financially, and when they became unable to do so afterwards, Ivan withdrew from the schools knowing that the only way to continue his education would be to get a scholarship.

Completely by accident, from a newspaper article he found out how the Zagreb milk house offered scholarships for students interested in milk production. As if not being able to avoid the destiny of preserving the family tradition, Ivan entered the world of milk production.

Ivan Gligora got the scholarship in the school in Kranj, Slovenia, where he finished his studies. His school was the only school in the former Yugoslavia having its own milk house.

The Zagreb milk house had a branch called The Dairy of Pag, which was the only milk house on our islands. In 1970, Ivan was sent to his native island of Pag after having finished his studies as a scholarship recipient and the only educated technologists coming from the maritime region.

Several years afterwards, Ivan was in search for bigger professional challenges. Therefore, his wife Marija and him went to Zadar to take over the job positions in a bigger milk house, where Ivan was employed as a technologist in a laboratory. In the following 20 years of work for The Zadar milk house he obtained professional knowledge in the field of milk and cheese production, and finally he was assigned the duty of production manager.

During the Homeland war in the 1990s, the production plant managed by Ivan was bombarded daily, yet managing to continue with the production and to offer the fresh products to the citizens.

After those difficult years in Zadar, Ivan decided to go back to his native island together with his wife Marija and their children Marina and Šimun. The island was his desired place throughout his lifetime.

In 1993, he got a job as a production manager in the same milk house, then called The Pag Dairy.

Yet, his restless and creative spirit was not satisfied, so in 1995 at the age of 45 he, together with his wife Marija, decided to start a small dairy in his native place of Kolan. The factory was called Mermaid – a small dairy, while the production plant was located in the basement and the garage of their family house in Kolan. The hard time of sacrifices and hard work were to follow.

From 1996 to 2002 Ivan and Marija faced any possible difficulty and pressures coming from the competition. Several times their factory almost went bankrupt, but Ivan knew only his knowledge, work and product quality could win. He started to show this to costumers as well as to participants of a number of local and foreign fairs.

In 2002, Pag cheese brought to Ivan the first great international acknowledgement for Croatian cheese, which meant the beginning of a series of world awards. The Gligora brand in this way slowly became the synonym for the best cheese and the factory started running business normally.

In 2005, after having finished his studies at the Faculty of agronomy in Zagreb (the field of milk production), Ivan's son Šime joined him whereupon they started to plan the construction of the new factory as the old plant eventually became too small.

In 2009, the Gligoras, after a hard-working period, built the new and modern Dairy in Kolan, thus crowning Ivan's hard and years-long work. The process of preparing the documentation, of finances, and of search for the best constructors and equipment lasted for several years. The factory eventually managed to get pre-accession funds for construction and equipment, whereupon one of the most modern world cheese factories of such size was established.

Such a big investment for the Gligoras, during the world economy crisis, was followed again by the tough but successful battle for market survival. Šime followed his father's steps building the brand and developing the factory, introducing the new products and improving the old tradition preserved by generations. He proved the quality of Gligora cheese at a number of international fairs and markets.

Nowadays, the Gligora Dairy employs over 50 workers; including skillful and experienced cheese producers and kind and professional shop assistants. The factory covers production in restaurants, stores and their own boutiques in Croatia, while the products are sold worldwide thanks to the dedication of all members of the Gligora team.

Today the factory produces over 450 tons of various types of cheese a year, including about 50 tons of Pag cheese, while milk is being purchased from over 200 partners from Pag (used for making Pag cheese) and from the regions of Dalmatia, Lika and Kordun (for other cheese types). Almost every year the Gligora Dairy receives the top international cheese awards thus helping to and promoting Kolan and Pag worldwide.

Pag cheese is a beauty
made of sage and immortelle, mugwort and cistus,
Jerusalem thorn and fennel
salted by hurricanes from two basins
eaten by Biliška and Mrkuša
Kaloka and Rogulja, Ćala and Pećara
hiding among babulja rocks.

Šime Gligora continues his father's verses:

The bora, the sheep, the man. And the island of Pag. Here comes the recipe for Pag cheese, the most famous Croatian autochthonous cheese.
The bora – the cold wind, rough and dangerous, unpredictable, moody, and so much needed. Needed for survival of the fittest. Only the plants such as sage, immortelle, cistus, Jerusalem thorn, fennel, could survive growing in the salty soil receiving the sea water from two basins: the channel under Velebit, and the Bay of Pag, and containing the salutary aromatic substances.
The Pag sheep – called Biliška, Ćara, Pećara, Rogulja and Kaloka, resisted to the bora during centuries. The sheep eat aromatic plants in the meadows, among the rocks called babulji.
The sheep are fully accustomed to the rough island weather and present an autochthonous species being kept freely on the pastures.
Only the strongest and the most resistant can survive on the island. Together with the Pag sheep humans also survived here. They received the wool, the skin, the meat and finally the cheese from the sheep. The cheese is the Pag's essence, the beauty. But it is not easily obtained. People used to get up before the dawn, build drystone walls, milk the sheep with their hands, turn the cheese around to preserve it…. a battle. Who is the strongest one? The bora, the island, the sheep? The human?
But the effort is always recognized.

The island of Pag is most diverse Adriatic island with the highest number of basins, where the mild Mediterranean climate and the rough and cold continental climate of the snowy mountain tops meet thanks to the nearby Velebit, the most beautiful Croatian mountain.

As the warm and the cold air mass touch on Velebit, the famous northern wind is created, especially in the winter – the bora. Bora is a cold, strong, and moody wind going down the southern mountain slopes coming down to the still sea surface where in the blink of an eye it creates the fog made up of tiny sea drops which it dries and turns into the sea salt dust. Then bora spreads the salt on the island turning Pag into a white and salty island. If it does not rain in the next several days, and the salt is not washed away, when it gets humid, the salty dust will spread around the scarce vegetation as if being spilled over with boiling water. In such conditions, only extremely resistant and mostly aromatic plants can survive, including the most famous and precious one, the Pag's sage.

Numerous colonies of these aromatic plants with colored little flowers decorate the clean and white karst on Pag during the spring time, thus, along with other herbs, presenting the food for the sheep freely walking and eating down the Pag's pastures.

The cheese production tradition on the island is considered to be as old as sheep farming, while the the Liburni, an Illyrian tribe were most likely the first farmers here. They lived on the island around 800 BC, and even today above Kolan there can be seen one of the most preserved drystone fortresses belonging to the Liburni. However, the first written trace of Pag cheese dates back to 1774, when the travel writer Alberto Fortis in his work Travels into Dalmatia wrote how the most important Pag's products included: sea salt, sage honey, wool and cheese.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the Kolan farmers used to have their stone cottages made of drystone walls and used for milking areas and for living. The stone little houses were covered with reed and sedge from the nearby Kolan field and were called stani. Stani were located outside of the village down the slopes of the scarce Pag's pastures.

The majority of Pag's pastures can be found on the hilly parts of the island and are fenced with stones or drystone walls. Drytone walls resemble to the famous Pag lace as they covered the Pag's hills dividing them into smaller parts and paths used by people, transportation vehicles and sheep. Men used to take care of the sheep and the milking process in stani. The pastures became a private property in the beginning of the 20th century, while the owners fenced their pastures with drystone walls. Stani then were no longer in use as shepherd houses, since shepherds came back to Kolan and women started taking care of the milking process. Slowly but safely, Pag cheese became famous and used not only by locals but also as a popular product on the market thus becoming the more and more significant source of financial profit.

This is the period of agricultural associations on the island, which purchased the cheese from local households and sold them on the local market. However, production plants opened eventually, enabling a more serious and balanced production, promotion and launching Pag cheese on a bigger market. Today, the majority of this limited top quality product is produced in the registered facilities.

Dedication to unquestioned quality, the desire for the old and the new knowledge, constant investments, and striving towards a continuous improvement – those describe the entire team in Gligora Dairy.

The team includes our reliable partners, experienced cheese producers, organized accountants and administrators, dedicated personnel and guides as well as persistent drivers. Our objective is to make the best cheese and to serve any true cheese lover.

Along with our top product Pag cheese, which presents only a minor part of our job, we also produce around curd as well as 60 different kinds of cheese, including cow cheese, sheep cheese, mixed cheese and various cheeses with other substances added. Every year we offer several new excellent products usually awarded at prestigious world cheese contests. Yet, our favorite award is the appraisal of our customers.

Our vision is to be recognized as one of the top quality cheese producers in the world, and to strive towards such development of the factory so as to be able to offer a higher quality life and sustainable development on Pag.

The protected authenticity (originality) label can be assigned only to food products whose quality is conditioned by tradition of their production in a certain history period in a certain region in a certain way. Namely, the climate, the soil type, the location, the natural vegetation, cultivated herbs in a region and the way of farming certain animal species are related to differences among the similar cheese types. Along with those, tradition and experience passed on through generations are key factors for recognition of cheese authenticity.

The association of Pag cheese producers asked for recognition of authenticity of Pag cheese as they had met the following criteria: Pag cheese was produced in the past the way it is produced today. The way of production and the knowledge are passed on through generations, milk and cheese production take place in the defined region (Pag), the cheese is typical of the region of production, it is original and authentic. Specific feature of the cheese are conditioned by the authenticity of sheep species, the taste depends on the natural farming, keeping the sheep in the open area with meadows covered with specific aromatic herbs.

Traditionally produced cheese can also be protected by geographic origin labels or traditional image, yet the most valuable protection is authenticity label. Several hundreds of farming products and food are assigned the label of authenticity and geographic origin.

Short overview of production of Pag cheese and Pag curd

The production of Pag cheese and curd is seasonal, as the sheep are milked from January to June on the island. On average, one sheep gives 0.75 l of milk a day. Most of the sheep are still being milked manually. After each milking, which takes place twice a day, over a hundred of Pag sheep milk producers bring the milk at gathering points on the island where the milk is to be stored and cooled. The milk from gathering points then daily goes to the plant in Kolan and is processed to become Pag cheese.

After receiving the milk in the Dairy and after filtration process, the raw milk can be processed thermally or not, depending on the season and the needs. Afterwards, milk is heated at the temperature of about 30°C. Then rennet is added into the milk and it takes half an hour for the milk to turn into cheese (to coagulate). The coagulated mass should then be cut so that tiny coagulated grains can be seen, the size of a wheat grain, and then the mass is heated at the temperature of about 40°C. The cheese grains continue with heating and with drying for additional several minutes. Depending on the season and milk content, experienced cheese makers can adjust the time and the temperature.

After the drying is done, a part of the whey is filtered and afterwards cooked in special dishes to get the famous Pag curd, while the rest is taken away for the pre-pressing process. The cheese mass is put into molds and then molds are put in the press where for several hours the cheese is being pressed systematically. After that, the cheese is salted and put into a liquid called brine in special pools. In the salting area near the pool for brining process there are shelves used for drying where the cheese is stored after brining. Pag cheese stays in the brine for a day or two.

The last and very important production stage is cheese ripening. The cheese is stored on special shelves in the ripening area with the temperature of about 14°-18° C with relative humidity being about 75%-85%. This lasts for at least 60 days up to 2 years. Every day cheese producers turn around the ripening cheese, they wash and oil the pieces, and traditionally they can apply ashes or must to prolong the ripening process.

Since 2002, when Pag cheese won the first prize at Italian fair Franciacorta in Bianco in the category of sheep cheese and when for the first time Croatian cheese was internationally recognized, almost every year we have been winning the most important awards at highly acclaimed world contests.

These are just some of the latest awards:

• 2022 World Cheese Awards, Wales, Žigljen aged in marasca cherry - SUPER GOLD
• 2022 World Cheese Awards, Wales, Paški sir (PDO) - GOLD
• 2022 Great Taste Awards, UK, Kozlar aged in olive skins - 3*
• 2022 Great Taste Awards, UK, Kozlar smoked - 3*
• 2022 International Cheese Awards, UK, Kolan smoked - GOLD
• 2022 International Cheese Awards, UK, Kozlar smoked - SILVER
• 2021 Global Cheese Awards, UK, Kozlar - Reserve Champion
• 2021 Global Cheese Awards, UK, Liburjan & Likotin - Gold Medals
• 2021 Great Taste Awards, Kozlar aged in pressed olive skin, 2*, Likotin aged in marasca cherry 2*, Paški sir extra old 2*
• 2020 Wisconsin, USA, World Championship Cheese Contest; Best in class - Dinarski iz vinskog dropa, Second award - Žigljen iz maslinove komine, Second award - Likotin, Third award - Kordunski sir, Third award - Kolan iz vinskog dropa
• 2019 Bergamo, Italy, World Cheese Awards; 4 golds (Paški sir, Likotin afiniran u maraski, Kolan afiniran u maslini, Kravlji sir iz luga), 2 silver (Likotin afiniran u maraski, sir sa senfom) and 2 bronze (Žigljen i Liburjan).
• 2019 Nantwich, UK, International Taste Awards; PAŠKI SIR - Silver 
• 2019 London, UK, Great Taste Awards; PAŠKI SIR - 3*, LIKOTIN IZ MASLINOVE KOMINE - 3*, JADRANSKI SIR - 1*
• 2018 Bergen, Norway, World Cheese Awards; Paski sir affinated in Marasca cherry - Silver Medal, Paski sir - silver medal, Kozlar Extra Old - Silver Medal, Kupid - Bronze Medal
• 2018 London, UK, Great Taste Awards; PAŠKI SIR - 2*, KOZLAR IZ KOMINE MARASKE - 2*, KOLAN IZ KOMINE MASLINE - 1*
• 2018 Nantwich, UK, International Cheese Awards; PAŠKI SIR - Silver Medal, DINARSKI SIR - Silver Medal
• 2018 Madison, SAD, World Championship Cheese Contest; ŽIGLJEN U MOŠTU - Gold Medal,   ŽIGLJEN U MASLINOVOJ KOMINI - Bronze Medal
• 2017 Nantwich, UK, International Cheese Awards, PAŠKI SIR EXTRA OLD - Gold Medal, KOZLAR ZRELI - Bronze medal
• 2017 London, UK, World Cheese Awards; PAŠKI SIR EXTRA OLD - Gold Medal, DINARSKI SIR - Gold medal, LIKOTIN IZ MOŠTA - Gold Medal, LIBURJAN - Gold Medal, PAŠKI SIR IZ MARASKE - Silver medal, PAŠKI SIR - silver medal, KOZLAR EXTRA STARI - silver medal, ŽIGLJEN - bronze medal, KUPID - bronze medal
• 2016 San Sebastian, Spain, 8 World Cheese Awards medals for Paski sir, Kozlar, Zigljen, Kordunski and Dinarski
• 2015 Birmingham UK, World Cheese Awards, the Pag maraska cherry cheese: winner of Super-Gold "Best Central and Eastern European Cheese" trophy
• 2015 Milan Italy, contest All'Ombra della Madonnina, 4 different goat cheese types win the best award "Targa di eccellenza"
• 2014 London UK,  World Cheese Awards, the Dinara cheese: vice champion and winner of the trophy "Best Central and Eastern European Cheese"
• 2014 Wisconsin USA, World Championship Cheese Contest, the Pag olive residue cheese:  "Best in Class" in the class of sheep cheese
• 2014 Nantwich UK, International Cheese Awards, the Pag must cheese: Gold & Best in Class
• 2014 Brussels Belgium, International Taste and Quality Institute (iTQi), the Pag cheese winner of "Crystal Award for outstanding consistent quality and taste" for 3 stars won 3 years in a row for Superior Taste Award
• 2013 Birmingham UK, World Cheese Awards, the Dinara cheese: winner of Super-Gold and trophy "Best Central and Eastern European Cheese"
• 2013 Frome UK, Global Cheese Awards, the Pag cheese winner of "Gold" award and "Best in class" for hard sheep cheese
• 2013 Birmingham UK, Great Taste Awards, Žigljen winner of  "3-Star Gold Medal"
• 2013 Nantwich UK, International Cheese Awards, the Pag cheese winner of "Gold" and "Best in class" for hard sheep cheese
• 2012 Frome UK, Global Cheese Awards - the Pag cheese winner of "Gold and "Best in class for overseas cheese"
• 2012 Kasiade Austria, Pag cheese winner of the Golden medal and the first prize in the class of sheep cheese
• 2011 Birmingham UK, World Cheese Awards, Žigljen winner of  "Super-gold" and best in the class of mixed cheese
• 2010 Birmingham UK, World Cheese Awards, Pag cheese, the first contest and triple champion and winner of "Super-gold", best in class for 3 different categories, winner of "Best New Cheese" trophy

The factory includes modern equipment used for production of hard and semi-hard cheese and curd, while the ripening area, located underground, and other areas are equipped with modern tools for ripening and air conditioning.

The production area includes admission laboratory with testing equipment used for testing the raw milk quality thus ensuring the processing of only quality milk used to make cheese. The factory has also its own vehicles and cooling equipment used during milk gathering and delivery.

In this way, along with implemented HACCP and IFS quality systems, we ensure top hygiene conditions and balanced production resulting eventually in a high quality product.

You can visit our factory and see cheese production process through organized tours.

By promoting our product in the world, we also promote Kolan, Pag and Croatia.

We are proud to be a leader in positive trends in Pag's sheep farming and cheese production, especially in stimulating the island's farmers without which the production of Pag cheese would be impossible.

We are also leaders in positive trends nowadays, as we work independently and through the association of Pag cheese producers on the island of Pag. We would also like to engage young people in agricultural production on the island who could create the conditions for future life on Pag. We therefore believe tourism cannot be the only business activity on the island but should be developed along with the production.

If you would like to join us, as a partner, contractor or our worker, feel free to contact us at: info@gligora.com!

If you are a student or a freshly graduated person willing to do your professional practice in a dairy, feel free to contact us! Our team has a great experience in working with students both from local and foreign education institutions.