Milica Maric, director and owner of Milotex - When lioness becomes dragoness

(Milica Maric)

The whirlwind of war in Travnik, where she lived in the 1990's, tried to break the picture in which she had a good job, happy and stable family, a house at the seaside, a weekend cottage on a mountain. Born in Slavonia with pride and defiance as the light motive, she did not allow the life to be stronger than her. That is why she has create her new world in Belgrade, even better and more successful. Once a manager of a Travnik-based footwear store, Milica Maric is today, together with her husband Milan, the proud owner and director of footwear manufacturer Milotex. And it has been so over the last decade.

When it comes to business, it seems that she has always been connected to Italy. Milotex's main partner is Italian Olip. The former gets all raw materials from the latter, including the samples of new models, based on which Air Step footwear is tailored, sewed, assembled and packed.

The proof of a success in the business is the fact that this Simanovci-based factory sends footwear to the shelves of several European and global brands. Milotex now has about 100 workers, while few years ago, before the economic crisis hit that sector, the company had over 350 employees.

First money in the childhood

She grew up before she was supposed to. When young people from her village were trying to earn a pocket money, she wished the same. Being short and fragile, her parents did not let her. But she sneaked out when she was ten and worked in a field to earn her first money. The sweetest. Fighting spirit has not left her ever since. She says her zodiac sign – lion, suits her completely. The family sees her in the same way - as the real lioness. She believes that everything in life happens for a reason.

- Who knows what everything that happens in life is good for. When we were leaving Travnik, I was 38 and I had the impression that the world collapsed and that we came to the end. Today, after everything we've passed through and achieved here, although there were both ups and downs, I regret not having left sooner.

Development

From Slavonia, via Travnik, to Belgrade, with occasional stays in Germany and Italy. This is how the development of Milica Maric could be described in short. An excellent grammar school student who had a passion for medicine, but has never graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, does not regret that now because, if she had graduated, she would have never entered the "world of shoes".

In the 1970's, invited by her elder sister, who was her model because of her successful marriage and job, she went to Germany where she was working for two years at the computer center of Sparkasse as the only foreigner among 2,000 employees.

Love brought her back to Yugoslavia, that is, she came back because of her current husband Milan, a student of economy at the time, who she met when she was 17. They have been married for 35 years and have son Miodrag and daughter Marina. All of them work together at Milotex.

Milan worked as a traveling salesman for Borac footwear factory in Travnik. He often traveled to Belgrade on business so that he knew Serbian market very well.

- All footwear manufacturers in that period knew Milan Maric. That helped us make contacts and start our own business very quickly.

The day she wished to abandon everything

She has always worked with shoes, but that does not mean that she knew anything about footwear production. She has learned everything in Milotex...

- Since I did not know anything about production, I was coming every morning at 6 AM and going home around 11 PM. I studied the process on each of the machines. Many people thought it was impossible for me to master all that, that I was doing all that for nothing, and I was just saying: "I will learn that in no time, but don't be embarrassed afterward...". At one moment we had 15,000 pairs of broken boots and I thought I would go nuts, that there was no way out again.

Through fire and water

But, fortunately, she had a support, someone she can rely on. That is why she finds her kids (and grandchildren) the greatest meaning of life. And a driving force. She is ready to do anything for them.

- Through fire and water if it is necessary. I am very happy when my daughter tells me: "Mom, as long as I am with you, I am not afraid of anything". And that is because I never panic. My organism reacts later. While I am "rescuing", I am calm and "cool".

She does not know if it is good not to be afraid of anything in life, but it is still so. What cost her the most was her sincerity. She always speaks what she thinks, and who does not accept her the way she is - does not have to.

(the Maric family)

The position of director has not changed her. It is maybe because she did not assume it "over the night" or because she knows how difficult is to tailor, sew and work on any of those machines. You can often see her in the production hall. She does not react on comments like "what kind of boss is operating a machine". She does not like being in public when she does not have to. Business talks over lunch are something she leaves to her husband.

However, her work did not stay unnoticed. At the proposal of the Srem Chamber of Commerce, she has recently won the 2010 Flower of Success for Dragon Woman award in the "Most European Women's Firm" category.

Although it is not the first award that Milica has won, since she has already won the award of Serbian Chamber of Commerce as a successful entrepreneur in 2006, and Milotex won the Kapetan Misa Anastasijevic award in the "Path to Top" category, this award made her very happy.

The best comment she got was, once again, from her daughter who proudly said: "My lioness has become a dragoness".