Vero Shoe Factory in Apatin Liquidated, 180 Laid Off

Vero, a shoe factory in Apatin, filed for liquidation with Serbia’s Business Registers Agency (APR) on September 24, 2026. Workers were laid off that same day, according to the local outlet Nove apatinske novine and the news portal N1.

The liquidation filing cites the disappearance of conditions for carrying out the company’s business as the reason. Vero has not published a fuller explanation, and the company did not respond when N1 asked about the layoffs or its future plans.

Sources differ on the exact number of workers let go. According to N1, about 90 permanent employees have been laid off so far, along with roughly the same number of workers on fixed term contracts, leaving about 170 people, mostly women, still on the production line. The newspaper Vreme, citing Nove apatinske novine, reports that of roughly 300 total employees, about 90 have been laid off so far, with no word yet on what will happen to the rest.

One of the laid off workers described how the news was delivered, speaking to N1:

Today they handed us our layoff notices. It says the company is being liquidated, that we have the right to register with the National Employment Service, and that if we want severance pay or payment for unused vacation days, we may need to approach a lawyer privately.

She said that alongside permanent and fixed term staff, a few retirees are also among those still working.

Vero has been run since mid 2025 by Jana Maricic and Danilo Prentic, heirs of the late owner Ljiljana Prentic, who had been the company’s director until her death. Since the liquidation decision was registered, both have moved from the role of director to that of liquidation administrator.

According to the company’s financial statements, Vero’s business revenue topped 6 million euros a year in both 2022 and 2023. It fell to about 4.8 million euros in 2024 and stood at around 5.2 million euros last year. The company last posted a profit in 2023; in 2024 it recorded a loss of about 500,000 euros, followed by a smaller loss last year. Average headcount stood at 374 at the end of 2025, down from 383 a year earlier.

Vero was founded on May 1, 1997 as an independent craft workshop and has operated as a limited liability company since 2006. According to Vreme, its workforce grew to 50 within its first three years, though the source does not say how many employees it started with. For years, the company manufactured shoes for foreign fashion houses; according to its financial statements, its clients have included Italy’s Prada, along with Capri Footwear Industries, Sicla and Gruppo Florence.

Under Serbian law, once the liquidation decision was registered, Vero is barred from taking on new business and may only wind down obligations it had already assumed. That means production will continue at the plant until goods under contracts signed before the liquidation began are delivered and shipped. The company has called on its debtors to settle their obligations and asked creditors to file their claims within 90 days of the decision’s publication.

For now, there is no way to know whether the liquidation marks the definitive end of a factory that operated in Apatin for nearly three decades, or whether an investor will step in to take over part of the business from the heirs of Ljiljana Prentic.