Another major company going bankrupt.
After years of turbulences, the shoe factory Inkop from Poznanovec in Krapina-Zagorje County went into bankruptcy on 1 August. About a month ago, it was clear that the situation was very serious, after the company’s employees refused to continue working because they were not paid salaries for four months. They have protested for the most of July, reports Poslovni.hr on August 3, 2016.
Lately, the company had 230 employees who worked for a minimum wage of 2,400 kuna. Problems with the payment of salaries began in December of last year and culminated in February. The company is best known for its range of “official military protective footwear” which it produces for the military, police, fire-fighters, foresters, railroad workers, etc. The last big contract was signed in April with the Ministry of Defence, and it was worth 5,3 million kuna. The Ministry of Defence often likes to point out that the Croatian soldier is equipped “from head to toe” with the products coming from domestic companies.
Inkop is one of those companies that benefited greatly from the military. Some have expected the government to step in and save Inkop with a direct grant. After they received a refusal note from the Ministry of Economy, the company’s director Zlatko Novosel explained that the only option available to them was to apply for bankruptcy. The business of the factory has also been affected to a great extent with the government crisis because there were no decisions made for almost a year. “We are mostly cooperating with the state and public companies, they represent 90 percent of our customers, and during the past year everything was delayed and functioned the way it did”, he said.
Inkop was established in the 1950s, while the current factory was built in 1980 and it employed 800 workers. The company had a capacity of producing 250,000 pairs of shoes per year. It remains to be seen where the Croatian military will order their equipment in the future. The Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior did not want to comment on the situation. Meanwhile, Croatia still has some high quality footwear manufacturers; there is Borovo, but also the German Haix footwear which supplies the German military, police and fire-fighters, and it employs almost one thousand workers at its plants in Međimurje.
