Krušik Valjevo


Krušik Holding Corporation is a Serbian state-owned company for the production of defense and civil related equipment, with the headquarters in Valjevo, Serbia.
The company was founded in 1939 in what was then Kingdom of Yugoslavia, for the needs of then Yugoslavia defense industry and army. Today the company represents the Government and military–industrial complex of Serbia in the sphere of production of defense and civil equipment. Company works together with the Serbian Army, Military Technical Institute Belgrade, Yugoimport and many other private companies in Serbia and around the world in producing new weapons and systems. The company also provides weapons design, joint participation in sales and manufacturing technology transfer.

History

In 1939 company "Vistad" in Valjevo was founded by engineer Nikola Stanković. It produced small caliber aircraft bomb, hand offensive grenades, infantry rifle ammunition. During WWII, farm equipment was produced. After WWII factory was nationalized and renamed to Military-Technical Institute of Valjevo. In 1948 the Company was registered under the name of “Krušik”.
In 1999, the company's facilities were heavily destroyed during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. As of 2009, Krušik held a large contract to arm the Iraqi army.
After two decades of working in limited capacity, in 2010s the company has begun operating positively, having annual revenues of nearly 100 million euros and cooperating with more than 70 countries worldwide. As of 2019, it has around 3,200 employees and is one of the main companies of defense industry of Serbia. In February 2019, the company celebrated its 80-year anniversary.

Controversies

Involvement with Yemeni and Donbass war

In September 2019, investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva revealed a series of documents that show weapons manufactured by Krušik sold to US Federal contractor Alliant Techsystems ended up in the hands of ISIS fighters in Yemen, as well as in the hands of Ukraine's Army and used against Donbass. This revelation led to the arrest of Aleksandar Obradović, an IT worker at Krušik, on suspicion of revealing company secrets on September 18. The news of his arrest had not been made public until an early October edition of NIN reported he had been taken into custody. He was released from jail and placed under house arrest on October 14. In 21 November, the Council of Europe alerted that the whistleblower Aleksandar Obradović is under house arrest. These events were one of the triggers for the anti-government protests.

Subsidiaries

On 13 December 2013, three employees were hurt during testing of the engine and initial filling of the anti-bumper projectile. On 6 November 2014, one employee died of injuries he got after the incident on production line.
On 15 May 2015, seven employees were hurt when capsule of hand grenade exploded on the production line.