LEONI Serbia - 15 years of growth and success

With more than 12,000 employees, LEONI Serbia is the largest employer in the industry sector. In addition, due to the amount of taxes and contributions it pays to the budget and with the development of the network of local suppliers, LEONI is a very important part of the Serbian economy - said Miloš Manić, general manager of LEONI Serbia. Minister of Economy Adrijana Mesarović also took part in the ceremony held on September 30th in Prokuplje.

When in 2009 the German LEONI Group opened the first factory in Serbia with only 350 employees in the dilapidated facility of the FIAZ company in Prokuplje, even the most optimists could not have imagined that after 15 years LEONI Serbia would have four plants and 12,000 employees. In the factories in Prokuplje, Doljevac, Niš and Kraljevo, this company employs more people than the population of 40 municipalities in Serbia. It was hard to imagine that the company would end the year 2023 among the five largest exporters.

At the jubilee ceremony organized on Monday in Prokuplje, Minister of Economy Adrijana Mesarović expressed her gratitude to the German company LEONI Group:

• On behalf of the President Aleksandar Vučić, the Government of the Republic of Serbia and on my own behalf, I expressed my sincere gratitude to the company "Leoni" for the trust placed in Serbia and its citizens. Employing more than 12,000 people in four factories across the country, solid foundations have been laid for the further growth and development of this company. I believe that our cooperation will continue to strengthen and that in the future we will witness even greater investments and deeper cooperation - said the Minister of Economy.

General manager of LEONI Serbia, Miloš Manić, assessed that this company is important for all citizens of Serbia, and not only for those who work in it:

• The development of our company would not have been possible without the investment of the parent company, the German LEONI Group, and the great support of the Serbian state, which opened the door for this investment. We now pay 48 million euros annually through taxes and contributions to the budget. These are the means that the state invests in infrastructure, healthcare, social protection... and that is why we are important for all citizens of our country. In addition, we develop small and medium-sized enterprises, because we have a network of 700 local suppliers and with them an annual turnover of 40 million euros.

The total investments of the LEONI Group in the subsidiary company in Serbia amount to around 300 million euros. Director of Technologies and member of the Board of Directors Walter Gluck pointed out that LEONI has been operating in many countries around the world for several decades, which means that it does not enter the markets for short-term profit, but to last.

Gluck assessed the strategic partnership with the Chinese company "Luxshare" as an exciting new chapter in the development of Leoni:

• Huge opportunities for growth and cooperation are opening up. Together with "Luxshare" we expect a great benefit for our competitiveness. Leoni's strong presence in Europe and America, combined with "Luxshare's" know-how in China, maximizes our market potential.

A particularly emotional part of the ceremony on the occasion of 15 years of operation of the company LEONI Serbia was the awarding of plaques and gifts to employees who have been with the company since its first days. Of the 350 people who were employed in 2009, 185 of them are still working in the company, and this is information that LEONI Serbia can be proud of.

When I started in Leoni as a very young person, everything seemed complicated to me. If you had asked me then if I would stay this many years, I would have said no. Now I am grateful to the company because in 15 years I built myself, I started as an operator and over the years built a nice career and also gave birth to three sons - says Marija Dedić Vučković, one of the segment leaders and one of the employees who received the plaque.

The company LEONI Serbia says that they are ready for new successes and jubilees.