Gorenje intends to hire another 500 workers in Serbia - Slovenians continue to expand production in our country

(Franjo Bobinac)

When it comes to the amount of labor costs, Slovenia is somewhere between Sweden and Serbia, so that the Slovenian manufacturer of household appliances Gorenje will continue to internationalize its production in order to keep its position among strong international competitors.

- Seven years ago we were producing everything in Slovenia, while now only about 55 percent of products are manufactured there. The rest of our production is in Serbia, Czech Republic and Sweden - Franjo Bobinac, director of the Gorenje Group that employs 11,000 people, said in a talk with the Ljubljana Delo newspaper.

- At the time of the internationalization of production, Gorenje acquired factories in Czech Republic and Sweden, whose production and technology will be gradually moved to Slovenia, whereas the production with a low level of added value will still be moved to Serbia, where labor costs are lower - Bobinac explained.

- We currently employ 1,200 people in Serbia and plan to hire 500 more within the next few years. The number of Gorenje's employees in Slovenia will not be additionally reduced, pursuant to an agreement with our trade union, but we are going to cease production at our Sweden-based affiliate Asko. Labor costs in Sweden are three times bigger than in Slovenia and nine times higher than in Serbia - said Bobinac.