The Slovak-owned rolling stock factory based in Zagreb, TZV Gredelj, signed a memorandum of understanding with Austria's company Innofreight on Monday, which involves a 10-year cooperation project which should allow Gredelj to win deals worth €2 billion.

Over the next 10 years TZV Gredelj should manufacture and deliver about 1,000 cargo train wagons and 6,000 cargo containers every year for Innofreight, a freight company based in Graz.

In order to successfully carry out these orders, TZV Gredelj should “overhaul and streamline its production,” which should cost an estimated €70 million. The company should also hire more workers, the company’s CEO, Ivan Petricek, said. TZV Gredelj currently employs some 400 workers, and is looking to hire another 600.

“The memorandum signed today shows that the company will enter a period of stable business,” he added. In 2022, the company’s revenues should exceed the €12 million earned in 2021,” Petricek said. In 2022, the company has orders worth €102 million.

“Therefore, the company will need more workers, and it will have to import labor from neighboring countries,” Petricek said.

Petricek, a Slovak, came to the helm of the TZV Gredelj management board in early 2022. He is a co-owner of Tatrovagonka, a Slovak company which acquired TZV Gredelj in late 2021 after the formerly state-owned company had been under bankruptcy administration for about ten years. Tatrovagonka, which invested €45 million in the acquisition, saved the company from closing down.

“The deals for Gredelj also mean investments and the long-term sustainability of the company, which will promote more jobs and more exports,” said the Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, who attended the ceremony.