Pana, a wood processing company from Čakovec, started a project with the Austrian company Weitzer Parkett, investing a total of EUR 10 million into the facility in Turopolje it recently acquired, to purchase new technology enabling it to expand its production range. 

This facility should produce layered parquet for local and international market, employing a hundred additional workers for a total of 250. Pana does not expect any difficulties in finding the additional labor especially as they have recently raised salaries by 10-15%.

Currently, around 90% of the Turopolje line production goes to exports. The new facility should produce up to one million square meters of parquet per year. Weitzer is expecting that some 20% of that will be sold outside of the EU.

One of Pana’s owners, Mr Alojzije Sobočanec, stated that Pana will bring labour and production into the new venture, and Weitzer, as one of the leading parquet producers in Europe, will provide technology and access to new markets. Pana expects to continue to buy the same amount of logs from Hrvatske Šume, but to increase value of final products and thus see revenue increase significantly.

This new facility will join Weitzer’s production lines in Weiz and Guessing in Austria, and Gyekenyes in Hungary. Weitzer is one of Europe’s top ten parquet producers, with 550 employees and EUR 75 million in annual revenue. Pana employs 147 workers and produces 350,000 square meters of solid wood flooring per year.