Knauf Insulation wins Investment of the Year Award – eKapija presents 2016 Aurea Award

Knauf Insulation is the winner of the 2016 Aurea Investment of the Year Award that is presented by the business web portal eKapija, and this award was handed over to the winner by Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Kori Udovicki at a ceremony at the Belgrade restaurant Aeroklub.

In its factory in Surdulica, Knauf Insulation last year commenced the production of rock wool using a new technology based on quickly renewable matters instead of oil-based chemicals. By introducing the ECOSE Technology, the company turned completely to the use of materials from the nature, with no added formaldehyde and phenol, and rolled out the first and the only product of that kind in the market of Serbia and the region.

- The Investment of the Year Award represents a special form of acknowledgement to our company for serious development and improvement of products from rock wool. Our products that are made using the ECOSE Technology have already found their way to all the markets in the region and will contribute to greater sustainability in buildings and facilities they are built in. The thermal insulation materials industry does not have a high innovation rate like the IT or mobile phone industries, which makes this investment a significant step forward in the thermal insulation materials market – said Tihomir Civkaroski, the general manager of Knauf Insulation for the Balkans, Cyprus and Malta.

Zdravko Loncar, the managing director of eKapija, underlined that the award went to a real example of good foreign investment in Serbia.

- It is primarily a technologically innovative project, a project that creates jobs for workers from a small town, and nearly complete production is intended for export. And given that the investor is a world-renowned manufacturer of insulation materials – Knauf, a company that brings good corporate standards to our business environment in addition to the new technology, I believe that we cannot ask for much more than that. I would also like to congratulate to all nominees because all projects that were short-listed this year are high-quality investments that we can be proud of and just wish there was more of them in the future.

Apart from the main award, eKapija also presented two special awards: the Innovation Award went to Ladjar transport for its manufacturing plant for coal briquettes in Ub, while MK Fintel Wind won the Social Utility Award for the first wind farm in Serbia, situated in Kula.

In addition to these three awarded investments, another five projects were shortlisted for this year's Investment of the Year Award: Euroheat – Production of Shell and Plate Heat Exchangers, ProCredit Bank – Self-Service Areas 24/7, Digital Logic – Multifunctional NFC 2DQR Barcode Reader, Agrogrnja - Silo-Port Beocin, and Hemofarm – Wastewater Treatment Facility.

- What all eight finalists for the Aurea Award can be proud of is the fact that by being shortlisted for the award, each of them has been recognized as the driver of sustainable development of the Serbian economy in their respective sphere of business. Aside from representing a reliable flywheel of sustainable and profitable business and prosperity of these companies, this concept of work also entails the growth and development of Serbia as a country where attracting investments is one of the priorities – Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Kori Udovicki said at the Aurea awards ceremony.

(Tihomir Civkarovski and Kori Udovicki)

The winners of the main award and two special awards were decided by a seven-member jury, and one vote was also cast by the readers of web portals ekapija.com and aurea.rs. A condition to compete for the award was that the project was implemented in the previous calendar year and that it meets three criteria: innovation, social utility, and financial potential.

The insurance company Coface was eKapija's strategic partner in this project.

- By partaking in the Aurea project for the third consecutive year, we want to encourage the development of business environment in the domestic market, make the economy of Serbia stronger, and boost the export of Serbian goods and services. The recognition of succesful companies contributes to regional promotion and networking of business entities from all sectors – said Djordje Zivanovic, the general manager of Coface.

The 2016 Aurea awards ceremony at the Belgrade restaurant Aeroklub was attended by numerous representatives of diplomatic corps, business community and the media.

Another partner of eKapija in the 2016 Aurea project was Global IT Factory.

About the 2016 Aurea Award winner

January 1st, 2016 saw Knauf Insulation commence the production of rock wool in its factory in Surdulica using a new technology based on quickly renewable matters instead of oil-based chemicals. Namely, the ECOSE® Technology was patented by the Knauf Insulation Group back in 2009, when it was first used in the production of glass wool. Considering that the factory in Surdulica has made a big progress over the past ten years, it was honored to be the first in the group to apply this technology in the production of rock wool for the construction industry.

The company was doing tests and preparing the production technology throughout the entire year 2015 in order to start the implementation smoothly in 2016.

Thanks to this technology, formaldehyde and phenol are eliminated from a traditional binder that is used in various industries, including the mineral wool industry, and the new binder is made from natural, renewable materials from the nature. In addition, products keep or even improve their high level of performances – a combination of heat and sound insulation characteristics as well as fire resistance. Also, the energy required to produce these new binders is reduced, which increases the environmental sustainability of the production process.

Over 40,000 tonnes of rock wool are produced in Surdulica every year, and the implementation of new technology in production is not going to affect the product price. Knauf Insulation exports rock wool from Surdulica to Bulgaria and Romania, Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey...

For more information on this award, visit aurea.rs.