Valy Closes Valjevo Plant, 737 Workers Lose Jobs
A Golden Lady group company confirmed it is closing its Valjevo plant and moving production to Loznica. Workers were promised severance, and the city awaits talks with the Ministry of Economy.
Valy d.o.o., a company in the Italian Golden Lady group, is closing its plant in Valjevo, where 737 people work, most of them women. In a statement issued on October 28, the company confirmed that production will move to its factory in Loznica by the end of the year. The Valjevo plant has operated since 2001 and makes women’s hosiery and underwear.
What did Valy say about closing the Valjevo plant?
The company presents the decision as part of an industrial restructuring plan in Serbia. According to the statement, the goal is to bring all production activities together at one location:
“Valy d.o.o. has launched an industrial restructuring plan in Serbia, whose main goal is to preserve production continuity and the long-term sustainability of the business by consolidating all production activities at the factory in Loznica. Under this plan, the production plant in Valjevo is to be shut down.”
Valy cites three reasons:
- falling hosiery consumption in key European markets
- a sharp drop in sales in the Russian Federation
- rising labor and energy costs
According to the explanation, these trends gradually reduced capacity utilization, which made a two-plant setup economically unsustainable. Loznica, the company says, has larger capacity and all the departments needed for the full production cycle. Local media also report that machines from Valjevo are being moved to Loznica.
The same statement announced measures for employees. The company says: “For that reason, in cooperation with the competent local institutions, we will use the mechanisms provided by law to keep the social consequences of the planned changes to the smallest possible degree.” The statement does not say how many workers will get a job in Loznica, or whether anyone will.
When did workers find out, and what were they told?
Reports differ on the day of the meeting. N1 reports that Valy’s director in Serbia, Carlo Marioti, came to the Valjevo plant unannounced on October 27 and told workers the factory was closing. According to that newsroom’s unofficial sources, he gave the reason as economic unsustainability caused by wars and a crisis on the world market. The daily Danas, citing local media and the Instagram page “valjevo_live”, writes that the meeting took place a day earlier, while Blic reports that workers were told on October 28. Two sources point to October 27, which makes it the more likely date.
They agree on the rest. According to local media, the factory should close by mid-December. Management promised workers that all obligations under their employment contracts will be met, including pay, taxes and contributions, as well as the right to severance. Danas also writes that rumors of a closure had circulated in Valjevo for months.
Nikola Josipovic, director of the Valjevo plant, did not respond to N1’s calls and messages before the statement was published. No statements from workers or unions have appeared in reports so far.
What does Valjevo say, and who decides next?
Valjevo Mayor Lazar Gojkovic told N1 that the news took him by surprise. He assessed the decision this way:
“The closure of the Valy plant is a heavy blow for Valjevo,” Gojkovic said.
According to him, the city still has talks ahead with the Ministry of Economy to find a solution for the workers who will lose their jobs. For now, it is not known what that solution would include.
Not the first cut at Valy
In 2021, Valy laid off 138 workers through a redundancy program, 77 of them in Valjevo and 61 in Loznica. Now the Valjevo plant is being shut down entirely. A few days earlier, according to RTS, liquidation proceedings began at the Kaizen factory in Smederevo, where about 350 workers are losing their jobs.
What is not public at this point: how many Valjevo employees will be taken on in Loznica, the exact date the plant stops operating, and the size of the severance payments. The company promised to meet its obligations but did not state the amounts.
