Slovenia's Kolektor to continue investing in plastic car part plant in Novi Sad – Jobs for 20 more workers in 2018

The Slovenian group Kolektor initiated production in Serbia a little under three years ago, and the Kolektor ATS Novi Sad factory has been continually growing since then. They've prepared serious plans for 2018 as well. The producer of plastic car parts will invest around half a million euros in equipment only this year, whereas total investments in the Novi Sad plant will amount to over a million euros. In line with this plan, they also intend to achieve considerably higher sales and to increase the number of workers.

The seat of the Kolektor group, founded half a century ago, is in Slovenia, and the system now encompasses 32 companies across the globe – in Germany, Serbia, B&H, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Slovenia... The group's annual sales amount to over EUR 600 million, and they employ 4,000 workers.

They initiated the production in Novi Sad in 2015, and they currently employ around 50 people there.

We talked to Sales and Purchasing Manager of Kolektor ATS, Igor Vukmir, during the Suppliers' Day event in Novi Sad, prior to the New Year.

Kolektor ATS produces interior and exterior plastic components for the automotive industry – dashboards and components, handles, cup holders, headrests and armrests etc... These are hybrid products, made by using several different technologies. A part belongs to the TIR 1 line, whereas another part belongs to TIR 2, making Kolektor ATS partly a direct supplier to car producers and partly a company working for direct suppliers. As our interviewee points out, although they usually do not discuss the number of units produced, the amount equals several million each year, whether plastic parts or assembled components.

Along with the automotive industry, which is their main business, they also have a line for components for Stihl products.

– This is the first program we've presented in Serbia. We are producing handles, holders and similar products for Stihl, performing full processes of injection and assembly. We are distributing them to Stihl factories worldwide. For example, in Serbia, you can now buy a trimmer assembled in Brazil, but a part of it was manufactured in Novi Sad – eKapija's interviewee says.

– Although our company in Serbia is young, we are increasing the volume of production and, with that, the sales, year after year. Kolektor prepares five-year strategies and we already know what we want to achieve in 2018. We intend for our sales to be higher than EUR 4 million, a considerable growth compared to 2017, for which EUR 3.6 million is planned – Vukmir says.

Furthermore, they expect to have around 70 employees by the end of 2018, that is, that the number of workers will increase by at least 20, our interviewee adds.

Although they are relatively new in the market, our interviewee emphasizes that the company's strategic orientation is towards staying in Serbia. They therefore find the cooperation with local suppliers important and they remind that events such as the Suppliers' Day, organized by the Development Agency of Vojvodina, are a great opportunity to make numerous contacts for various suppliers positions in a short amount of time and in a single place. For this reason, he adds, his advice is for companies of any size to be as involved in such events as possible.

M.M.

KOLEKTOR ATS d.o.o. Novi Sad

Kolektor Koling d.o.o. Idrija

Razvojna agencija Vojvodine Novi Sad

Kolektor Slovenia

automotive industry

car industry

car parts

car components

plastic car parts

plastic car components

Suppliers Day Novi Sad

Development Agency of Vojvodina

Stihl

production of car parts in Serbia

dashboards

armrests

headrests

cup holders

trimmers

saws

Igor Vukmir

plastic injection