The Austrian company Texport dealing with production of protective clothing initiated two simultaneous investments in October 2015 – a new facility was opened in Vinica worth 1.5 million euros and with announcement of 180-200 employees, and cornerstones were laid of the future factory for production of firefighting clothing in Ilinden.
“With a potential of 800 employees, most of them in Macedonia, Texport shall become the largest international producer in this business field”, said the owner, Mr. Otmar Schneider.
In accordance with the announcements, the investment in Ilinden is estimated at 4 million EUR with a prospect of opening 450 new jobs.
In Vinica, the investment was announced at the end of 2011 by the former Prime Minister Mr.Nikola Gruevski, and the same investment was also announced three years later, in 2014, by Gjorgje Ivanov, then candidate for President of the Republic of Macedonia. The facility in Vinica opened in October 2015. The expectations were that this investment would create around 200 new employments.
In December 2015 Mr.Gruevski visited the factory in Vinica and reminded the public that Texport already opened a facility in Kochani.
If we summarize the announcements for investments of the Austrian company in both Vinica and Skopje, it turns out they are worth over 4.5 million euros and will provide at least 650 new employments.
According to Central Registry data, there are three companies in Macedonia related to the Austrian Texport. These are Patra Tex, Texport Production and Texport DOOEL in which the same persons are owners or Directors and they all share the same business address.
Altogether, these companies have noncurrent assets in the amount of around 1.5 million euros and all three of them had a total of 219 employees in 2016.