Vega Valjevo invests EUR 4.5 million in new premises and automated production line

The Valjevo-based company Vega invested EUR 4.5 million in new premises in its anniversary year, in which it celebrates 25 years since its foundation, Kolubarske reports.

The new space will open in November and feature the latest automated production line, in which over EUR 1.5 million was invested. The facility is located within the renovated building of the former company Ferum, taking up 4,000 square meters and accompanied with around four hectares of land.

– To us, it was a big decision buying the former factory Ferum and building a warehouse there, a modern one, not just for being equipped with the latest technologies, but for providing good working conditions. The new warehouse is fully automated, the result of the work done by the Austrian company Schaefer. As soon as mid-November, we will have a completed and operational line for collection, separation and packing of medical drugs and other goods, from where they will be shipped to markets from the north to the south of Serbia. Thanks to the new, modern line, the work that is now being done in two or three shifts we will be able to finish in ten hours, and, instead of 5,700 articles, we will have 10,000, which is a considerable expansion of our range of products. Furthermore, we will create such conditions that we will have a logistics support to do as much as 40% more work than now – Stanko Jesic, president and owner of Vega, says for Kolubarske.

Aside from EUR 1.1 million for the devastated and abandoned Ferum, around a million euros has been invested so far in the construction of the new facility on the existing foundations, in infrastructural equipping, involving the most modern heating and cooling systems, and optical cables.

Around EUR 800,000 will be invested in the reconstruction of the former head office building of Ferum, which will be the future head office building of Vega. The total investment in the new business premises thereby amounts to around EUR 4.5 million.

Vega has 30 pharmacies throughout Serbia.

– We plan to open another ten or so pharmacies. These are either existing pharmacies no longer capable of operating on their own, or abandoned outlets which used to house pharmacies until now. We have not been more aggressive in developing our pharmacy network so far because we didn't want to open outlets in places featuring our most important clients. We didn't want to compete with them and that was our business rule. But now, as state pharmacies are unfortunately failing and closing down in numerous places, we can open our outlets in places where state pharmacies have closed down.

The Vega business system has two separate companies within it – Vega Veletrgovina (Wholesale) and Vega Apoteke (Pharmacies). They had four employees 25 years ago, and now they have over 400. More than a half of them are college- or university-educated, and the average age of the employees is 30. The average salary is around RSD 80,000. This year's turnover will reach the amount of EUR 150 million, and the partners of the Valjevo company include the biggest European pharmaceutical companies, Kolubarske reports.

Vega d.o.o. Valjevo

Ferum

Schaefer

Stanko Jesic

Vega Veletrgovina

Vega Apoteke

state pharmacies

pharmaceutical industry

medical drug trade

wholesale pharmacies