"Watergroup" has produced water for 13 years. The experience gained in these years has led this company to take over the “Rada” mineral water plant project and restart the production in this factory.
Boris Raskovic, co-owner of “Watergroup doo” says that with the experience gained over the past 13 years, they entered this project very seriously, engaged experts from the region who are most famous in this field and who have set up similar projects in the region. In the last eight months, according to Raskovic, from the source to the factory itself, everything was practically made as new.
A lot of money was necessary to restart the production and therefore they entered the entire project with the support of the Investment-Development Fund.
"The total investment in “Rada” is about EUR 4 million, of which IRF funds amount to EUR 2.5 million. The loan repayment period is ten years, out of which the grace period is two years. The interest rate is 3.50% per annum. The procedure for getting the loan is quite complex; it included a complete analysis of the company, the collection of various data. We have experience in working with them for the realization of our previous projects, so we have done this one quite efficiently," Raskovic said.
There are currently 20 workers in the new factory. One of them is Miras Joksimovic, who was part of the staff 20 years ago when “Rada” was in state ownership.
"This is something new now, quite different; I believe that all of this will be all right and that the new owner will be able to make it operate even better," Joksimovic pointed out.
The investment-development fund has invested a significant part of the funds into the north of Montenegro and this project shows that new jobs are being opened in this part of the country. Slobodan Cvijovic, who graduated at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, decided to return to his homeland.
"I was born here, my family is here and I plan to stay here and show that this city offers a perspective for youth and that we can live, work and progress here," said an employee at “Rada”, Slobodan Cvijovic.
The company believes that “Rada” will stand in the place that belongs to it, and on that occasion, Raskovic said that when the dice are in place, they will enter into new projects.
"The plan foresees that in time when all this is done, we will slowly introduce other products in the assortment. By this, we mean water with flavors and juices. By the realization of this project we really want to create a serious industry in the north, which will not only substitute a significant part of the import of these products in Montenegro but make an industry that will compete in parallel with similar companies in the region," Raskovic said.
"We believe that this project has the potential to restore that old glow to “Rada” and our task is to keep it going and slowly start exporting because “Rada” was exported once and was present in the region," Raskovic added.
As he said, he looks forward to having an institution in Montenegro ready to help the Montenegrin economy.
"If there is an opportunity given by the Investment-development fund, it should be used because, at least in that respect, you reduce some of the risks and the grace period makes it easier to, through already affordable loan rates, complete one financial part of the story more simply than in commercial banks," said Raskovic.
The company is aware that the Montenegrin market faces numerous problems, and that large imports in many cases create problems for domestic producers.
"We, as manufacturers, firstly need to create a quality product that will compete with reputable products from the region, then place it on the shelves and introduce ourselves to the ultimate customer, so he can choose our product, and not some other water," says Raskovic.
The new plant, “Rada”, has a production capacity of 15,000 liters of water per hour, and currently employs about 20 workers. The company announces that there will be more as the business expands.
Text by Promo, on April 26th 2019, read more at Vijesti
