German company Meggle became Monday an official owner of dairy plant Mladost in Kragujevac (central Serbia), which it bought from Belgrade's company Silbo in December 2010.

The ownership transfer contract was signed by CEO of Meggle AG Sil H. van der Ploeg and one of Silbo owners Dragan Jankov.

The Meggle representative did not want to talk about the worth of the contract, but announced that the company will invest several million euros into Kragujevac's dairy this year.

Besides its current range of products, Mladost will start producing Meggle-branded consumer products, mainly dedicated to export to certain neighbouring countries where it has already secured its position in the market- Montenegro and Macedonia.

The dairy plant Mladost will change its name into 'Meggle Serbia', and will offer fresh products with expiry date up to 25 days, Ploeg said.

The German company is already present in the region, and ten years ago it opened its first dairy plant in Croatia, Ploeg said underlining that the total annual turnover of that company is EUR 750 million, and that it hires 2,000 workers.

The Kragujevac-based dairy plant Mladost was established in 1954, and was a state-owned company until 2004 when it was privatized. Two years after, the purchase contract was cancelled.

The dairy plant was taken over by the Action Fund, and then sold to Belgrade's company Silbo for about EUR 450,000.

Kragujevac's dairy hires more than 100 workers who produce 80,000 liters of milk daily.