BOXPERFECT, a company from Essex in the UK, has picked the village of Kojšov in Gelnica District for a new plant to manufacture gift and presentation boxes for the retail trade. Production began in June. During the first phase 30 jobs were created; more employees should be hired next year. Boxperfect plans to export 85 percent of its production.
“Growth in demand, especially in the European market, and higher interest from customers led us to decide to open a new plant,” the Hospodárske Noviny daily quoted Mark Bottger, director-general of Boxperfect, as saying in May.
Apart from the level of production costs the sound reputation of the Slovak labour force also contributed to the company’s decision to choose Slovakia.
“A lot of Slovaks have worked in our plant in England,” he said, adding that the company had found them to be skilled and dutiful workers.
According to the daily, the British investment has arrived in Kojšov partly thanks to the global increase in fuel costs; China used to be a significant supplier of gift boxes to Europe but now the price difference between Boxperfect and China has narrowed significantly, it wrote.
Boxperfect also plans to use Slovak suppliers of input materials.
The arrival of the British investor in the small and relatively remote village brings some hope of a reduction in the high local jobless rate. Almost 27 percent of Kojšov citizens are registered unemployed, while joblessness in Gelnica District is almost 20 percent, the TASR newswire wrote.
