In December 2015, BRG Group from India, bought the former Porcelanka factory in Veles, with the aim of producing kitchen products out of stainless steel. The value of investment, as it was reported, was 31 million euros, with a plan to employ 1,000 in the next 5 years.
According to the Accountability Report of VMRO-DPMNE, the company planned to begin production in late 2016.
The company, registered in Macedonia as M Skuare Balkan Limited DOOEL Skopje, had non-current assets worth 3.1 million euros in 2015 and three employees, while by the end of 2016 the number of employees increased to 7.
The contract was signed in January 2016, between the Government and the company's management. As it was reported in the media, for more than a year, the government team, including the Minister for Foreign Investments Jerry Naumoff and Macedonian Ambassador to India, Tony Atanasovski, worked on bringing this foreign investment to Veles.
"This investment is a result of our efforts revive as many of the as factories that were shut down during the transition. It is an extremely important period in our history when thousands of citizens were left jobless throughout our country and many factories were shut down. Veles was particularly affected at that time, during the closing of factories, and one of them was the former Porcelanka factory," explained former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski after signing the contract.
According to media, BRG group will produce steel products and kitchen utensils out of stainless steel in the restarted factory of former Porcelanka.
The company has six factories with 13 thousand employees and offices in several world capitals. Their annual turnover is 500 million euros.