Serbian Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications awarded the awards to the most successful domestic commodity and corporate brands at the closing ceremony of the campaign “Best of Serbia 2016”. At the ceremony in Novi Sad, the awards were presented to representatives of 22 local companies in 25 categories.
“Changing ourselves, we changed the action The Best from Serbia. The action we have installed connected the tradition of one of the most prestigious national recognition with the modern trends in business and in the market, knowledge and objectivity of science-based methodology with modern trends and attractiveness, financial market indicators to the attitudes of consumers, experts, business partners and jury” said Marko Čadež, President of the chamber of Commerce of Serbia. Values that are genuine, individual brands which refuel national brand, are jointly creating a new image of Serbia as a country of successful stories, which is becoming more attractive to the world – both for politicians and investors as well as customers and tourists, said the president of PKS.
The award “Best of Serbia” in the category of best brand for goods of daily consumption is assigned to Bambi’s Plasma, in the category of beverages, to the company Nektar, while in the category of chemistry the prize was awarded to Merix company, Henkel Serbia.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajic said at a ceremony at the Master Centre of the Novi Sad Fair that companies are bearers of the “Nabolje of Serbia,” the core of the new Serbian business elite. “You are despite the financial crisis and great difficulties managed to use their knowledge and skills as well as creative ideas, and solve problems and make significant result, which is not only the success of the company but also the success of the Serbian economy,” said Ljajić.
As the best product for the house the furnace-oven Smederevac, was awarded, of the manufacturer Milan Blagojević from Smederevo. Extreme Intimo has been awarded in the category of clothing, textiles and footwear, and in the category of manufactured goods and business services the company NIS Petrol Novi Sad was awarded.
Congratulating the winners, Igor Mirović, President of the Provincial Government pointed out that the term ‘The Best from Serbia” is a kind of identity card for the competition and a significant segment of intangible but very important added value that in today’s world is called brand. This positive recognition is very important to any brand, and we should all aspire to that, said Mirović.
“Serbia has great athletes, artists, scientists, and tonight we have a chance to meet the great entrepreneurs of our country. The Ministry of Economy will continue to provide financial and non-financial support, to enable better business environment to expand their business and in hiring new people. This year there is an amount available to about 11 billion dinars through incentives for investment and about 18 billion through various programs to train, perfect, start a business or something of the kind” said Goran Knezević, Minister of Economy.
Premia, owned by Delhaize’s, was named best commercial brand, Bio Panon, organic beef, awarded to the best new brand introduction. As best foreign goods brand that is produced in Serbia, Gorenje was awarded, and the best local brand – Maruška. Leskovac homemade ajvar was honoured as the best brand with a protected designation of origin.
For the best corporate brands in the consumer goods category the award went to the company Sunoko, for the food and beverages, Nektar was awarded, in the category of chemicals, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and other products award went to the Niš-based Philip Morris Operations. The company Alfa Plam from Vranje won the award in the category of products for the home and consumer durables and the one for clothing went to Luna from Požarevac. In the category of manufactured goods and business services, recognition was awarded to NIS AD Novi Sad, and for the best service company the Belgrade “Nikola Tesla” was awarded. In the category of small and medium service companies, the General Hospital BEL MEDIC has been awarded, and for the introduction of the most successful start-up companies – the award went to the Cabinet DOO Sopot.
The best exporters are Alfa Plam AD Vranje in the category of large and Micro Electronica doo Beograd in the category of small and medium-sized enterprises. Best tourist event is the Drina Regatta, a Kopaonik Business Forum has received an award for the best economic event. The jury this year awarded a special prize to “Vega IT Sourcing LLC”, which this year, the year of entrepreneurship, achieved very significant results.
Novi Sad Mayor Miloš Vučević congratulated the winners and thanked especially the PKS that for 12 years held the action “The Best of Serbia”. As he said, for 12 years PKS has managed to keep this event as an indication of how good and quality work. Vučević PKS praised the decision to hold the award presentation in Novi Sad – the European capital of culture and youth capital of Europe.
As in previous years, the Ministry of Commerce in cooperation with the largest retail chains, the winners of the prestigious awards got their “top corner,” where the awarded brands were shown: Plasma, Grandma’s Secret, Best wishes, Smoki, Eurocrem, Bananica, Polimark ketchup, Galeb, family Nectar, Healthy juices, Merix and Bohor. After the official programme the band Lollobrigida entertained the guests.