The only other company to crack the EUR 1bn plateau was household appliances maker Gorenje (EUR 1.106bn), shows the annual list released by the newspaper on Monday.

Revoz, which recorded the largest growth of sales on foreign markets (47%) among all 132 companies on the list, reached the top after being third in 2016.

The car assembly plant dominated the list between 1993, when it was introduced, and 2010, when it exported almost EUR 1.3bn worth of Renault cars.

Krka meanwhile increased its sales on foreign markets last year by 8% or EUR 89m, Lek's exports were up by 7% or EUR 70m, while Gorenje's foreign sales increased by 2% or EUR 22m.

With almost EUR 5bn in foreign sales, the top four exporters accounted for 18% of total exports by Slovenian companies.

In addition to Revoz, nine more companies recorded at least 40% growth in exports in 2017, the largest of which are car lighting maker Odelo and electricity metre maker Iskraemeco, with EUR 179n and EUR 105m in exports, respectively.

According to Delo, exporters are very optimistic about this year, as 53 out of the 132 companies expect at least 9% growth in sales abroad. Revoz plans to increase its foreign sales by 14% to EUR 1.8bn.

Most of the companies named Germany as their main market, followed by Italy, Austria and Croatia.

Krka exports to the largest number of countries (120), followed by paper maker Količevo Karton (97) and Gorenje, electronics group Iskra and IMP Pumps (90).

The largest 132 exporters in Slovenia had a total of 85,116 employees at the end of last year, which was more than 10% of all employees in the country.