Construction of a factory of socks of German Falke started today in Leskovac and 25 employment contracts were presented to the people who will be working at that factory.
The foundation stone for the new factory, which should employ 600 people, was laid by Serbian Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic and Falke’s owner Pol Falke.
Falke said that the new factory with 15,000 square meters of production space would be finished prior to April 2011 and that the production of socks would start two months later.
That investment will cost Falke more than 10 million euros, while about 10m pairs of socks will be produced in the Leskovac-based factory every year, mainly for European market.
Falke pointed out that the support his company had received in Serbia was something new.
– Falke has a family tradition 115 years old and we will keep that spirit in Leskovac as well. I promise to the works that this project in Serbia will be successful and that we will have a good atmosphere – the owner of Falke underlined.
Dinkic assessed that Falke had opened the door for other foreign investors in Leskovac, like, for example, Irish company Kingspan, and expressed the expectation that the number of new jobs in the socks factory would exceed the planned 600.
Falke has received from the state of Serbia, through the Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA), EUR 4,000 for each newly employed, that is, EUR 2.4m in total.
At the same time, the state will also finance the training for certain number of workers, which is already underway in the School for textile and design in Leskovac, while some workers will receive the training in Germany, the costs of which will be covered by the employer.
Leskovac Mayor Slobodan Kocic, who has, according to Dinkic, managed to provide necessary infrastructure support and building permits and resolve property relations in a short time, said that the arrival of Falke was the turning point for the economy of Leskovac.
– Today we will also talk about the arrival of an investor from the textile industry in Leskovac, which intends to employ between 500 and 1,000 people. New winds are blowing in this city upon the arrival of Falke. I expect to see the rivers of workers in this street again soon, just like 20 years ago – said Kocic.
Falke’s new factory will be built in Tekstilna Street where five textile factories used to exist and are now closed, that is, on a part of the lot of Leteks and Inkol factory, which has been bought by that German company.
Source Ekapija.com
