Prevent Global Entering High-Tech Market
The Slovenj Gradec-based company Prevent Global has decided to launch a new production of optical memory cards in Slovenia despite great interest of its foreign partners to win the deal. Test production is expected to start in December.
Investment will amount to between EUR 40 and 50m at the initial stage, CEO Joze Kozmus told the press on Wednesday, adding that the investment would return in seven years at the latest.
The company is deliberating four to five possible locations for the new production facility. Refusing to disclose them, Kozmus said that the chosen location would be known in three months.
The new plant, the second of the kind in the world, will employ a workforce of 100, according to Kozmus. It will produce 10 million optical memory cards and post revenues of EUR 40m. He said the production could be upgraded in a relatively short period to raise the output to 30 million memory cards.
The production will be based on a licence agreement between Laser Card and Global Investment Group signed in 2004.
Prevent, a leading European manufacturer of car-seat covers, will enter high-technology market with the new production. "Sewing car-seat covers does not guarantee stable future in the long term, which is why searching new market niches is a must," Kozmus said on Wednesday. Memory cards will be sold on the European, Asian and African markets.
Marjan Spegel of the Jozef Stefan Institute of science and research said at the press conference held by Prevent Global that the investment into expertise and technology needed for the production of laser cards in Slovenia would strengthen Slovenia's position as a high-tech producer. It will also boost the development of expertise, technology, systems and solutions based on smart cards at home, Spegel said.
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