Share
Serbia’s top supplier of plastic fishing products has overcome a major blaze that caused around 100,000 euros of damage and destroyed its machining department and 80% of its warehouse to set its sights on business expansion with an appearance at this year’s Angling International LIVE.
The premises of Dejan Plast, based in Serbia’s second city of Novi Sad, suffered a potentially business-threatening fire in December last year. At risk were domestic sales plus export markets located in the Balkan Peninsula, including Bulgaria, Bosnia and Croatia as well as Spain and Latvia.
But, through dogged determination, Dejan Plast has managed to keep its business running and supplies delivered to customers. The company’s Dejan Galic told Angling International: “Because of all that had been lost, the start of the year was rough, but we managed to stay in business. Luckily, our plastics department – the mainstay of the operation – was almost intact so after a clean-up we were able to restart production.
“We take pride in the fact we were able to deliver orders in a very short space of time, but because of extensive damage to the warehouse, our buyers had to wait for up to four to five weeks for delivery.”
Galic added that the situation has now stabilised. “We are more optimistic. We were worried as to whether we could renovate our company, replace destroyed machines and at the same time complete orders for our buyers.”
The challenges faced by Dejan Plast has produced a silver lining, according to Galic. He revealed: “Working hard in the production department caused us to take our eye off the ball when it came to marketing and looking for new buyers while also keeping in touch with our present partners.
“The fire has made us think about expanding our reach and looking for new markets in central Europe that present a good opportunity for cooperation. These include Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Germany.
“We are looking forward to attending Angling International LIVE in Budapest later this year and talking to potential new customers about how working with Dejan Plast can improve their business.”
Established in 1990, Dejan Plast began making fishing tackle six years later and is now a major maker of tackle boxes for twisters and floats and rod holders. It has also seen growth in demand for its aromatic pop-up corn and has become a supplier of fibreglass for the manufacture of floats which has become a popular addition to its business across Europe.
