Merger creates new jobs and opens new markets - Nikinci-based Europarketi factory to invest EUR 2.5 million in production expansion and power plant

Nikinci-based Europarketi factory produces 4,000 square meters of parquet floor every month. Although a more serious production started just four months ago, floor covers from the factory in Ruma have already been delivered to Russia, Montenegro and all around Serbia.

So far, about EUR 800,000 have been invested in this factory. New investments and the relocation of the Croatian partner's production to the factory in Nikinci will double its production capacity and octuple manpower. The end goal is to build a power plant to generate and supply electricity to the factory.

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There are three companies in the ownership structure of Europarketi: Zlatici from Uzice, Ekoterm Ignjatovic from Hrtkovci and Eko Hrast from Croatia.

- Preparations for the construction of a factory for producing parquet floors in Hrtkovci commenced in December 2010, whereas the production started four months ago - Branislav Zlatic, the owner of Zlatici, says to eKapija.

Europarketi currently produces parquet floors, parquet flooring battens, pallets and briquettes and plans to move to the production of elements for the lumber industry and furniture.

- We are now processing beech for a Belgrade-based company, but we also process Slavonian oak and ash. Our partners' idea is to start the manufacture of furniture sets for night clubs, but that all depends on the market – Zlatic points out.

- Raw materials for the production of Slavonian oak flooring are supplied from Croatia because our foreign partner has an agreement with Hrvatske Sume (Croatian Forests), while a big portion of raw materials will be purchased in association with Vojvodina Sume.

Parquet floors made in the factory in Nikinci have so far been delivered to Russia, Montenegro and all around Serbia. Zlatic stresses that users are satisfied with its quality. A problem lies in the insufficient quantity of available parquet flooring because they are unable to satisfy the needs of all buyers and all their requests with only one production line. Therefore, they plan to relocate the foreign partner's complete production from Croatia to the factory in Nikinci.

- The Ruma-based factory now produces 4,000 square meters of flooring a month, and the capacity will be doubled with the merger of productions in Serbia and Croatia. The production capacity of the factory in Nikinci amounts to about 250-300 square meters of flooring a day, and it will be doubled with the commissioning of a new parquet floor production line.

At the moment, the factory in Nikinci employs 11 people, and the plan is to increase that number to 80 until the year's end. Although the number of workers will grow thanks to the relocation of the production from Croatia, Zlatic says that people from the Ruma region will get a job at the expanded facility.

- We will primarily hire workers from Nikinci and Hrtkovci and other places in the municipality of Ruma because Ruma has provided us with all possible available means to launch this project.

After the merger of productions in Nikinci and possible expansion of the product portfolio, the end goal of the factory is the construction of a power plant.

- That power plant would be using intermediate goods - waste, to generate electricity. We would connect it to the electric grid and provide enough electric energy for our own needs, whereas possible surplus energy would be used within the system. In order to build a power plant with the capacity that would satisfy our needs, we need about EUR 200,000.

So far, between 600,000 and 800,000 have been invested in the factory in Nikinci, whereas between 2 and 2.5 million euros will be invested in the expansion of the factory to enable the relocation of the production from Croatia and in the construction of a power plant.

I.B.