Peko - footwear factory in Slovenia

At the foot of the Karavanke Mountains halfway between Ljubljana and Klagenfurt, the most modern footwear factory of its time in Central Europe was erected in 1911 beside the centuries-old town of Trzic. The firm Peko Trzic had been established in 1903 by Peter Kozina, and he boldly exploited the successful beginning of his enterprise to make a great leap forward. In his time he became a well known and respected manufacturer of high quality footwear that was sold all across Europe.

Just as Peter Kozina knew how to exploit the fruits of the many centuries of Trzic’s shoemaking tradition, his followers knew how to maintain the reputation of Peko despite all the revolutionary changes in the industry. Even more, in the last thirty years Peko has experienced unbelievable growth and development and has consolidated its firm position not only in the European market but in the United States as well.

Due to the loss of markets and property following the breakup of Yugoslavia, Peko has fought a hard battle for existence in the last few years, but we can say that the company has gradually emerged from this struggle renewed and adapted to new world conditions.

Peko now produces six thousand pairs of stylish women’s and men’s leather shoes a day. We are proud that in the circle of our customers we can count firms such as Afis, Benetton, Betty Barclay, Everybody, Geox, Kalliwoda, Neumann, and Samsonite. Peko has sixty shoe stores in all the larger towns in Slovenia which sell over 700,000 pairs of our footwear and the footwear of our permanent business partners every year. Through our joint venture firms we have also returned to customers in Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Peko has a large machine shop devoted to constructing machines to manufacture rubber and polyurethane soles and plastic heels for use in our own factory and even more for export.

Above all, Peko is people: 1600 highly skilled men and women who have shoemaking in their blood, who not only know how to tighten their belts when necessary but also how to roll up their sleeves and do whatever is required to make Peko a successful company.