Heating element producer Zoppas interested in investment in Kikinda – Potential for 200 jobs

Everything points to a major foreign investment about to be made in Kikinda. As Kikinda's premier Pavle Markov puts it, we are talking about the Zoppas Group whose management has already been in talks with Kikinda for a year. Markov announced that negotiations that have involved the Serbian government are in the final phase and that the initialing of a cooperation agreement may be expected by the spring.

This will be the first Zoppas plant in our country with an initial staff of around 200. As business expands, the need for a larger workforce will grow over time. By comparison, Zoppas began work in Romania in the same way two decades ago and today employs over 3,000 staff in its plants there, in Sînnicolau Mare (Veliki Semikluš). Kikinda hopes that the same development will take place there.

“Foreign investment is exceedingly important for all regions, ours too”, says Markov. “We will fulfil all of Zoppas' conditions.”

The value of this investment is all the greater when one realises that this is the global leader in the production of electrical resistors and heating elements. With its broad production range, Zoppas has 11 factories on three continents with several tens of thousands of staff. We are awaiting this company with open arms, in the hope that it will stay forever, in everyone's interests.

With its head office in Italy, Zoppas has taken the opening of its new business in Kikinda seriously, which is best illustrated by its adverts in our media calling on locals to work in its future factory. They have confided the application procedure to the municipal administration and they will then choose the best.

The factory design project is practically done. It will be a brownfield investment, i.e. a regeneration of old, abandoned factory buildings of which there are many in Kikinda. Zoppas can choose its location and will probably decide upon such an old industrial zone at the exit from the town towards Belgrade.

Zoppas' call to test the labour capacities for its new plant has made a big noise in Kikinda. Within three days, over 800 people had applied to municipal office 88. Registration lasts until 16 February for all job seekers, even those who are already employed including those not registered with the national employment service.

It was the open border that brought them

For Zoppas' arrival in the North Banat we can surmise that the greatest 'blame' lies with the opening of the Nakovo-Lunga international border crossing. The open barriers allow all communication, including business contacts with the neighbours. Zoppas, with its factory in Sînnicolau Mare only 30 kilometres from the border, has spotted a cheap but competent and mobile workforce on our side. Over time the company has concluded that it can pay to open a plant in Kikinda, which the town's leaders had been advocating all the time.

Translation provided by: www.halifax-translation.com

Grad Kikinda

Zoppas group

Zoppas grupa

Pavle Markov

Veliki Semikloš

granični prelaz Nakovo Lunga

Zopas Kikinda

Zoppas Kikinda