Tarkett wins Exporter of the Year 2011 award - SIEPA to strengthen presence of Serbian companies in Poland, South Korea, Kazakhstan

(from the awards ceremony)

The Investment and Export Promotion Agency of Serbia (SIEPA) presented the Exporter of the Year 2011 award to the Backa Palanka-based flooring manufacturer Tarkett last week.

The Best Export Product award went to the company Medica Systems & Products from Belgrade, whereas Patent Co from Misicevo won the award for the Best New Export Market. FSO Gosa from Simicevo is the SME Exporter of the Year, while special recognition in the category of small and medium-sized enterprises went to Elex Commerce from Belgrade.

Biljana Jovanovic, owner and director of the women's clothing producer Luna from Pozarevac, won the Special Award for the Best Female Entrepreneur, whereas special recognition in that category went to Marina Milovic from the company Maja Promet.

Tarkett's exports in 2011 will exceed the value of EUR 100 million, and this company sells its main products - vinyl tiles and multi-layered floorings, not only to the countries in the region, but also in the markets of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Sweden, and Poland. Tarkett hired over 100 new workers this year.

- Export is of exceptional importance for a company of our size. We would not be able to survive without foreign markets. If the market fails to grow in 2012, Tarkett plans to try to increase its share in the markets of eastern and southeast Europe where we are present for decades – Miroslav Okuka, director of this Backa Palanka-based company, announces for eKapija.

Belgrade-based Medica Systems&Products won the Best Export Product award for its medical scanner that uses a beam of X-rays to generate 3D images of teeth and head bones.

(Miroslav Okuka)

- The scanner we produce is used to generate 3D images of head bones, mainly for the needs of dental procedures, ORL and maxillofacial surgery. It utilizes the most sophisticated software, which is, along with all other electronic and mechanical parts of this scanner, completely made in Serbia - Nikola Drezgic, CEO of Medica System&Products, explains for our portal.

- We are currently exporting this product only to Australia and New Zealand, and our sales in these markets in 2011 amounted to about USD 600,000. We will primarily try to start exporting scanners to the Russian market next year, as well as to the other countries in Europe and America. We will be very satisfied if the export's value is doubled in 2012 - Drezgic adds.

The award for the SME Exporter of the Year went to the company FSO Gosa from Simicevo, which exports its entire product portfolio of concrete mixer trucks to the markets of Germany, USA, Brazil, Belgium, and India.

- Gosa's exports in 2011 are 33% bigger than last year, amounting to about EUR 10 million. We plan to boost our exports by additional 20% in 2012, and I believe the expansion of capacities we are currently working on will help us achieve that. We have acquired a factory that used to belong to the company Petar Drapsin from Mladenovac, and we plan to employ about 30 workers at that factory. We are doing our best to enter the Russian market in 2012 - Radisa Jovicic, CEO of FSO Gosa from Simicevo, says for eKapija.

The company Elex Commerce won the special recognition in the SME category. This company exports equipment for the production of radioisotopes and radiopharmaceutics to Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, USA, Russia.

The Best New Export Market award went to Patent Co, manufacturer of fodder and fodder additives, which succeeded in exporting its products to Peru and Thailand in spite of huge competition. This company from Misicevo reported EUR 1 million exports in 2011.

(Nikola Drezgic, on the left, receiving the award)

- SIEPA helped us participate in two international trade fairs, thanks to which we succeeded in finding partners in Peru and Thailand. We also export our products to Hungary, Spain, France, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia, and expect them to enter the market of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan next year - Radivoje Pervoci, executive director of Patent Co, reveals for eKapija.

Biljana Jovanovic from the company Luna, producer of women's clothing, won a special award for the Best Female Entrepreneur, which is this year awarded for the first time by SIEPA. That company is very active in promoting female entrepenreurship among younger population, while 98% of its employees are women.

Luna exports its products to Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia, and it has a tendency to expand the list of its export markets.

Biljana Jovanovic says that this successful company intensively works toward boosting its exports in 2012 and positioning even better in the markets worldwide. She believes that the company's sales in the Scandinavian countries will be boosted soon, and the plan is also to enter the markets of Hungary and Bulgaria.

Special recognition in this category went to Marina Milovic from Maja Promet who gave her personal contribution to the development of both female and entrepreneurship in general in Serbia as the Ambassador of Female Entrepreneurship.

SIEPA has been awarding Exporter of the Year since 2004, with the aim of encouraging new export undertakings of export-oriented companies in Serbia with this state recognition. The award-winning companies have an exclusive privilege to use the Exporter of the Year logo in their promotional material.

This year's sponsors of the Exporter of the Year Award are: ProCredit Bank, which handed a check for EUR 15,000 to FSO Gosa for their efforts at improving the export activities; DHL International Beograd, which gave 10,000 euros in export services to Patent Co; and Orange Studio, which will design a EUR 10,000 promotional marketing campaign for Medica Systems & Products.

SIEPA awarded Luna with a specialized training for its employees, aimed at improving the company's sales, efficiency and work-related capacities.

The ceremony held in the City Hall of Belgrade was attended by Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, Deputy Prime Minister Verica Kalanovic, SIEPA CEO Bozidar Laganin, Ambassador of Italy to Belgrade Armando Varriccio, State Secretary for Digital Agenda Jasna Matic, and Dragijana Radonjic Petrovic, state secretary in the Ministry of Economy.

Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic stated that the Serbian government was very interested in providing a support to all exporters, adding that it was part of a new orientation and a new growth model launched two years earlier. He said that exports in the first 10 months of 2011 (in USD) were about 25% bigger than in the same period in 2010.

Bozidar Laganin announced that SIEPA was preparing to strengthen the presence of Serbian companies in Poland's construction industry and boost Serbia's food exports to South Korea and Kazakhstan.

M.S.