Swedish clogs made from Bosnian wood are a hit in America

The example of the company Maguba, which has been producing famous Swedish clogs for four years in the small municipality of Turbe near Travnik, modernizing their design and marketing them in the USA, shows that there are still interesting and untold stories in BiH, reports the Patria News Agency.

Regarding what brought this Swedish company to BiH, Senada Selimović, the company's director, says that the owners decided to move production to another country due to business and production costs, and then the decision was made for BiH. During that time, she worked as the production manager in this company in Sweden.

To start operations, they purchased business premises from the Novi Travnik Tax Administration, a 1700 square meter hall, and began production. As the demand for these products grew, so did their production and employment of new workers. Thus, from an initial 12, they now have around 40 employees.

A few days ago, Selimović successfully passed the demanding selection process for the program The Challenge, organized by the Swedish Embassy in BiH, which awards grants to companies with good projects.

Selimović says that through this program, they received a grant of 15,000 euros, which she states is a significant amount for them, as they intend to use these funds to purchase a wood dryer that will help them complete the production process in Turbe and increase production.

Maguba has its own sawmill where they cut logs, but until now, they had to send the wood to a dryer in Donji Vakuf. This was the only part of the process they couldn't handle in-house. "With the new dryers with a capacity of 50 cubic meters, this problem will be solved," says the interviewee.

In general, most of the raw materials used are sourced in BiH, including wood, thread, glue, some lining materials, cardboard boxes, etc. Only leather and nails are procured abroad.

"We buy most of the raw materials in BiH, but we import leather from the Netherlands because these clogs require special, very strong leather. We must use only first-class leather for the clogs to fit properly. We procure special nickel-plated nails in Ljubljana because such production does not exist in BiH," Selimović tells us.

The company produces over 44,000 pairs of clogs annually, which are then sent to Sweden and subsequently shipped to America.

Regarding plans to market the production in the domestic market, or the market of former Yugoslavia, she says that this might be discussed in the future.

(ekapija.ba)