When the name of Cazim Mulalic is mentioned in Cazin, the residents of this small town in the northwest of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have nothing but words of praise for him. Namely, Mulalic belongs to the ranks of hardworking people who left a part of themselves in Cazin and made this town more famous with their workshops.
In addition to laying the foundations of one of the most successful companies in Krajina, Limometal, with his “Limarija Mulalic”, this gentleman of the past invented and patented a product in tinsmithing, achieved outstanding results in playing chess and made a great contribution to the development of this sport in Cazin.
Also, he is proud of the long twenty years of practicing shooting sports, where he competed in the clay pigeon shooting discipline in the generation of Dzevad Haznadar, whom he once defeated. All the trophies and awards he won, which are carefully kept in the center of Limometal in Cazin, testify to the great love and passion that Cazim had for this sport.
“Our competitor from Cazin, Dzevad Haznadar, a member of the Shooting Club Krajina Cazin team, was the vice-champion of Yugoslavia and was shooting with a Hungarian for first place individually. Dzevad missed the first pigeon and killed all the others. I beat that runner-up in Cazin on Mihaljevac individually and won the cup for the third time in a row ahead of the Shooting Club Krajina Cazin team. Then I shot 93, and Dzevad Haznadar 91. Every year I went to Trieste, and bought, with my money, and shot 10.000 bullets, plus the fact that the company and the team gave 2 or 3 thousand, it all went to waste. However, I would not be able to train or achieve everything I have achieved without my friends Redzo Cartakovic, Esad Kapic, Juso Berberovic, Alija Sulejmanagic, Malik Pozderac and Suljo Duric. I would also like to emphasize the great support of my wife and sons,” says the 89-year-old Mulalic.
He learned the craft back in 1952 in Cazin. He perfected his knowledge and skills in Austria in the town of Bruck an der Mur, where he left in 1965 and got a job as a locksmith. He quickly realized that the job was better in Yugoslavia than in Austria, so he returned to Cazin after only two years. In 1970, he graduated as a highly-skilled tinsmith in Zagreb because that was a necessary condition for him to start working as a teacher of practical classes at the Secondary School Center in Cazin. He worked there for 14 years, during which he was also the deputy director for practical classes.
“It is very easy to work at school. There is not a lot of workload. Those were the best years for me, during which I was also engaged in shooting. I had spine surgery in 1973 in Zagreb, Rebro clinic. The doctors told me that they would make sure that I was self-sufficient, but after that, I also drove a truck and played sports. My son Mensur came from the army in 1980 when I left the store to him, and I did the things I could. Later we bought a dunum and a half of the land where Limometal is located today and we moved the shop. My grandsons Anes and Edvin will continue the tradition and they are the third generation of Mulalics in this business. I am happy because they are doing well. My oldest son is an economist in the Revenue Department of the Una-Sana Canton (USC) Government in Bihac, and the youngest works with Mensur in Limometal,” says Cazim, who has been in a well-deserved retirement for 30 years.
In 1986, he patented a hook with a tension plate that prevents the breaking of snow and ice. He also explained how that patent came about.
“We had the wind at our back then because I invented and patented a product in my craft. On the Madrasa building, the strip around the lightning rod, wherever it came, that connection for the gutter was my idea. The gutter was not curved in that area. I found the application with great difficulty because it was being hidden, but my name as a researcher is there”, concludes Mulalic.
