Krušik (company)

Krušik Holding Corporation (Holding korporacija Krušik) 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. The company works together with the Serbian Armed Forces, Military Technical Institute, Yugoimport SDPR and many other private companies in Serbia and around the world to produce new weapons and systems. The company also provides weapons design, joint participation in sales and manufacturing technology transfer. In 1939 a company named "Vistad" in Valjevo was founded by engineer Nikola Stanković. It produced small caliber (12 kg) 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. In September 2019, it became public that weapons manufactured by Krušik sold to US Federal contractor Alliant Techsystems ended up in the hands of ISIS fighters in Yemen. This revelation led to the arrest of whistleblower Aleksandar Obradović, an IT worker at Krušik, on suspicion of revealing company secrets.