Valvoline acquires FAM for EUR 9.5 million – Company employs 120 former workers of Krusevac factory

Around 120 former workers of the Krusevac-based Fabrika Maziva (FAM), that is, more than a half, have been employed by the American company Valvoline, which recently officially took over a part of the property and the operations of the said company, the general manager of FAM, Jelica Djurovic Petronijevic, told Beta.

– The new owner has employed more than half of the former FAM workers, that is, around 120. Almost all employees, over 200 of them, first used the social program, which amounted to EUR 400 per year of service, and then applied for a job at the new employer, and a part of them were employed – she said.

She reminded that the agreement on the sale of FAM to Valvoline, that is, its subsidiary Ellis Enterprises East doo Beograd, had been signed in February and that the official takeover had taken place on July 1, when the purchaser paid the agreed amount of EUR 9.5 million.

Djuric Petronijevic noted that Valvoline had not bought FAM as a legal entity or its capital, but that it had bought the land, buildings, equipment, intellectual property, a whole new location and the operations of the company.

– This means that Valvoline has taken over the market position of FAM and that it will continue delivering the merchandise under the same brand. This is a world-renowned company and I expect that they will make an investment, which will also lead to the creation of new jobs and an opportunity for the remaining workers who were employed at FAM until recently. Also, the workers which Valvoline has employed are the former FAM workers and not workers employed through an agency – she said.

She explains that FAM continues to exist as a legal entity, which, as she said, needs to fulfill its obligations defined by the Pre-packaged Reorganization Plan (PPRP), that is, to carry out the monetization of the remaining property and settle its obligations towards the creditors. The office building in Jug Bogdanova Street and the factory’s old locations in Kobilje and Lipovac remain owned by FAM.

The PPRP for FAM was adopted last November, and the data show that the company’s debts exceed EUR 150 million. These debts, with interests, were incurred during the previous privatization process, which was terminated in 2011. FAM’s annual realization amounts to around 10,000 tons, and the factory’s last year’s revenues amounted to RSD 1.74 billion.

Let us remind that the Commission for Protection of Competition has approved this concentration of participants in the Serbian market of oils and lubricants.

Valvoline Lexington

Fabrika hemijskih proizvoda Hemofluid Kruševac

Ellis Enterprises East doo Kruševac

FAM Kruševac

Jelica Đurović Petronijević

acquisition of FAM

sale of Fabrika maziva FAM Kruševac

sale of FAM Kruševac

acquisition of control over Fabrika maziva FAM Kruševac

production of lubricants

production of industrial oil