Tigar Tyres was founded in 1935 in Pirot as a workshop for the manufacture of rubber products and all kinds of footwear. It was longtime part of joint venture company Tigar a.d. from Pirot. After second world war company was nationalized by new Communist authorities. In 2007, the French company Michelin became a major shareholder of the company. In February 2008, Michelin bought the remaining shares of Tigar Tyres for $47 million. With this acquisition, Michelin would become 100 percent owner of the company by 2010. In 2012, Michelin planned to invest 170 million euros in production capacity and employ 700 more workers over 5 years. In October 2014, a new plant of the factory, worth 215 million euros, was opened. It has provided an employment for additional 500 employees. For this investment, Tigar Tyres received "Aurea" award, given by the business portal eKapija for the best investment in Serbia for 2014 calendar year. As of April 2016, the company had around 3,000 employees. From 2013 to 2016, Tigar Tyres has invested 215 million euros in factory's modernization and construction of new facilities.
Market and financial data
In 2013, Tigar Tyres was the fourth biggest Serbian gross exporter with the total value of exported goods worth 231.4 million euros. Since then, Tigar Tyres has established itself as one of three biggest Serbian gross exporters, being the third biggest exporter in 2014, 2015 and 2016. According to the 2018 financial report submitted to the Serbian Economic Registry Agency, the company has 3,388 employees and it posted an annual profit of €40.86 million for the 2018 calendar year. Tigar Tyres finished the 2018 calendar year as the fourth biggest Serbian gross exporter with 388.9 million euros worth of exports.
Incidents
On 23 April 2015, six employees were injured by electric shock in the factory plant, of whom three had serious injuries. All three had burns that were covering between 50 and 80 percent of the body. In the next 10 days after the accident, all three workers who were seriously injured died of injuries sustained due to the electric shock.
