Serbian textile industry is given another opportunity to rise from the ashes. Retail textile chain, Inditex, which owns famous brands Zara, Zara Home, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius and Bershka, owned by Amancio Ortega, is interested in cooperating with textile companies in Serbia.
The Serbian Chamber of Commerce expects arrival of Ortega’s managers, with an intention of touring the country in search of partners who would produce for his department stores around the world.
In 2016, Ortega made it to the top of the Forbes magazine list of the wealthiest people in the world with his personal wealth of $79.5 billion topping Bill Gates’ $78.5.
“Inditex is yet another huge clothes and footwear retailer interested in finding partners in Serbia. They are looking for companies to sew according to their instructions, but also to buy finished products”, says Milorad Vasiljevic from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
In autumn, the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will bring with him a group of Turkish textile magnates. The Serbian Chamber of Commerce also expects a group of German clothes and footwear distributors to come to Serbia too. The visit is organized by the German Organization for International Cooperation – GIZ. Also, there are two companies, one from Spain and one from Portugal, are interesting in opening footwear factories.
The recovery of the Serbian textile industry started in 2005 with the implementation of the Textile Treaty which the EU signed with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and which stipulates duty-free export to the EU for Serbian textile companies. A bigger breakthrough into the European market happened in the last few years. Since 2012, the Serbian textile industry has been recording a 10% annual export growth.
(Politika, 19.08.2017)
http://www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/387241/I-Zara-bi-da-sije-u-Srbiji
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