And they say they got the building permit in one day!
Expanded production facilities of the HAIX Obuća company were opened on Saturday in Mala Subotica, near Čakovec in Međimurje. The new facilities bring 170 new jobs, and the operations in the factory will again be organized in two instead of three shifts. Until now, HAIX had 660 employees in Croatia, reports Index.hr on March 13, 2016.
"With the new facilities in Mala Subotica, we have only confirmed that the decision about investing in Croatia was the right one", said Ewald Haimerl, the CEO of HAIX. After the investment of five million euros, the size of the factory area has been increased to 15,200 square metres and the production capacity has risen from 6,000 to 10,000 pairs of shoes per day.
HAIX has been present in Croatia since 1999, and in 2004 it founded its daughter company. Haimerl said that total investments in the Croatian company have reached 10 million euros for the construction of the production facility and 6.5 million euros for the equipment and machinery needed for production.
Speaking about moving the production from Asia back to the EU, he said that the decision about the investment in Croatia was made for several reasons. The first one was that there was qualified workforce in Međimurje for footwear manufacturing, and the second one was the efficiency of the local bureaucracy. He was surprised that all the necessary permits were issued within 4 to 8 weeks, while in Germany he would need 4 to 8 months for the same procedure."The building permit for the new facilities was issued in one day", he praised the local government authorities. Haimerl also pointed out that the work ethic of Međimurje workers is similar to that of German workers.
Head of the factory Markus Lins said that the manufacturing that was done in Vietnam is moving back to the new facilities in Croatia. Interestingly, even Chinese fire-fighters are now wearing boots produced in Croatia. Products from Mala Subotica are being sold all over the world, Lins added. Besides professionals like soldiers, firemen, police officers, hunters, foresters and rescue workers, their products are becoming more popular with other people as well.
