Panasonic buys Reum's facility in Svilajnac

(at the agreement signing ceremony)

Japan's Panasonic, which established a company for producing energy-efficient electronic components for lighting systems (Panasonic Electric Works Vossloh-Schwabe Serbia d.oo - PEWVS) in Svilajnac, Serbia in late 2010, bought a Svilajnac-based facility of German factory Reum GmbH from the Baden-Wurttemberg province on Tuesday (2 April 2013).

A sales agreement was signed in the Town Hall of Svilajnac by PEWVS CEO Dirk Pophauken, Panasonic Europe Director Hirogahu Irigushi, and Svilajnac Mayor Predrag Milanovic.

Panasonic purchased the facility from Reum by acquiring debt claims from the bank that issued a bank guarantee to that German company. However, the amount of debt was not mentioned.

- This is a new step in Panasonic's operations in Serbia - Paphauken said briefly and added that negotiations had taken a long time.

Milanovic assessed it was a large project not only for Svilajnac and Serbia, but also for the region. According to him, this is a sign for other foreign investors that the business climate in Svilajnac and Serbia is favorable for making investments and doing business.

The facility that Panasonic bought spans 9,000 square meters and is situated in Veliko Polje Industrial Zone. Reum started building that facility in October 2008 to use it to produce parts for air conditioning systems for cars, but it gave up the project a year later, after investing EUR 2.5 million, due to the economic crisis and bankruptcy.

In a rented 2,500 sqm space within this factory, Panasonic began production in January 2011, after hiring 65 workers.

Panasonic and its factory in Ludenscheid (Germany) then announced that PEWVS was the first project of that company in Serbia, adding that it was aimed at "boosting the capacity for producing electronic dampers in LD modules" for the market of Europe.