"Jagodina Brewer" on tender by end of year - Englishmen and Croats expressed interest

Executive Director of Jagodina’s Brewer, Zoran Petrović, said yesterday (April 16, 2008) that he expected that that company would be sold on tender by the end of the year.

He confirmed that the negotiations with interested local and foreign buyers were in progress.

- Certain company from England is interested in brewery in Jagodina, and the factory was visited by the delegation of the Osjek brewery - said Petrović.

During the last six months, 270 of total of 410 workers left the Jagodina Brewer, and about 1m EUR was provided for their severance pays. The plan is that the number of workers is reduced by another 50, so that it could be easier for the factory to be sold on the tender.

Privatization of the Jagodina Brewer was cancelled in December 2006 because the buyer, a consortium made of company "Pan Beer" from Novi Sad and "Infond" holding from Slovenia, did not fulfill obligations from the contract.

The brewer was sold in August 2005 for 75,000 EUR and the buyer was obliged to invest 4.5m EUR in the brewer within the next five years. Few months after privatization, the workers did not allow the new management to enter the factory and 15 of them were running the company.