Serbian Glass Factory opens new plant in Paracin

PARACIN - The Vaider Serbian Glass Factory opened a new production plant in Paracin, central Serbia, on Wednesday.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the company could count on government assistance and that he would ask the government to find a way to help the factory more to ensure it became the best in the region.

"Today, we have laid the foundations upon which I hope we will rebuild a good house that we have all managed to destroy in the meantime. This factory was once the strongest in entire Pomoravlje, this factory used to be building our cities and villages, not only in the Pomoravlje District but in all other districts as well," Vucic said.

He noted that Avram Petronijevic had founded the first glass factory in the Balkans in the vicinity of Jagodina, central Serbia, as early as in 1846.

"Since then, we have had a tradition of glass manufacturing and, while other Balkan countries were importing bottles, Serbia started to produce them. It was then that we demonstrated that, with our own hands and our own industry, we can shine and make a difference, and that we are capable not only of consuming, but of producing things as well," Vucic said.

After that, the workers and their know-how were moved to Paracin in 1907, and "a tradition of success and lack of success, openings and closures, has been going on since then," he said.

"Slowly but surely, through bad privatisations and all other processes, we kept succeeding in destroying something that is so valuable to us. Today, with our Swiss and Slovenian partners, we are building something new and trying to raise the factory from the ashes," Vucic added.

The ceremony was also attended by the Swiss and Slovenian ambassadors to Belgrade, Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic and Srbijagas CEO Dusan Bajatovic.

Earlier, Vucic met with the factory's owner Igor Lah and Vaider Group CEO Christian Froba.

The international Vaider Group, whose parent company Vaider Group AG is registered in Luzern, Switzerland, acquired the Paracin factory in late 2022.

The factory restarted production in 2024 and currently has a workforce of around 250, focusing on production of containers for food and beverages.