Production initiated in all facilities of chemical industry Zupa – Jobs for 130 workers

The new owner of the Krusevac-based company Zupa, Eucom, has initiated the production in all four companies of this chemical industry, and more than 130 people have been employed, the company said for Beta.

– All three pesticide facilities, one sulfate facility, two xanthate facilities and one potassium facility have been put into operation. We currently employ 130 people and we are at initial capacities at the moment. The aim was to start as many facilities as possible, that is, to have Zupa's products in the market in the first year of operations – said the director general of Zupa, Aleksandar Mandic.

The production of bluestone, which Zupa used to be famous for, has been restarted as well. The product is selling in both the local and foreign markets, whereas the situation with pesticides is specific, as Mandis says, because it takes two years to register such products.

– Zupa used to have more than 100 permits for pesticides. At the time we took it over, it had 12, and we've initiated the production of eight of them, whereas another three are expected. The animal feed additive facility is also expected to start operating by the end of the year – Mandic said.

The plan, as he added, is for all facilities to be recovered and modernized and for "serious production" to be organized, whereas the products are to be placed in both the local and foreign markets.

As Mandic says, Zupa is looking at hard work if it wants to return to the market, which was penetrated by big distributors and other producers in the meantime. He doesn't doubt they will succeed, as he sees Zupa as a synonym for quality in production and distribution of various chemical products. The aim is to have around employees by mid-2018, and the company is expected to have 300 to 500 employees in the next five to ten years, depending on the market.

The Belgrade-based company Eucom bought Zupa in bankruptcy for RSD 316.2 million in December 2016, as the only bidder to answer the ad placed by the Bankruptcy Supervision Agency. Zupa was privatized in 2003, the sales agreement was terminated two years later, and it entered the process of restructuring in 2010, following several unsuccessful tenders.

In the past decade and a half, the workers have been leaving the factory through social programs. Of around 1,400 of them at the beginning of the privatization, only 18 people worked in Zupa prior to the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings.

HI Župa a.d. Kruševac

Eucom trade d.o.o. Beograd

Zupa

Eucom

pesticides

sulfate

xanthate

potassium

Aleksandar Mandic

sale of HI Zupa

privatization of HI Zupa

Zupa Komerc

production of floatation chemicals

chlorine pumping

production of hypochlorite

HI Zupa profit

bluestone

production of bluestone

production of pesticides