The sock maker Intersocks and the smart home technology developer Plume Design have won the 2022 Slovenia FDI Awards for foreign investors who achieved exceptional results in the past year and contributed to the development of the country's economy.

The accolade has been presented by the SPIRIT Slovenija investment promotion agency since 2006 as part of the broader strategy to attract foreign investment.

The Kočevje-based company, which produces and sells socks and distributes well-known brands, received the Slovenia FDI Award in the Creative category at the award ceremony in Ljubljana on 20 December.

"Expanding and increasing its production capacity, it managed to achieve high value added per employee in the past year," the judging panel said. The company is a leading sock manufacturer by that criterion.

Employing 170 people, Intersocks is part of the international Intersocks Group, which also has subsidiaries in Switzerland, Italy, Croatia and Poland. It has been present in Slovenia for 25 years. In 2018 it established a knitting plant in Kočevje.

Its value added per employee rose to almost €80,000 in 2021 in a major improvement compared to previous years. The number of employees has been growing steadily, having doubled in the past five years.

Intersocks posted over €50 million in revenue and €4 million in profit in 2021. "These are excellent results considering ... the difficult supply of some raw materials, unpredictable delivery times and rising logistic, material and energy costs," the judges said.

The Ljubljana-based smart home technology maker Plume Design won the award in the Smart category. The judges described it as a fast-growing company that offers innovative and smart solutions for management of telecommunications devices in homes.

"It employs more than 120 top experts and generated €1.7 million in profit from sales last year. With value added per employee of €127,450, it places high above the Slovenian average," the judges added.

The company is part of the Plume software-as-a-service company, based in Palo Alto, California and present in more than 30 countries, which provides services for smart homes used in more than 43 million homes around the world.

The global company has received many awards, including the Cloud-Based Solution of the Year, Broadband World Forum Awards 2021, Best Cyber-security Solution as part of the 2021 ISPA Awards 2021 and the Best Wi-Fi Innovation with Liberty Global as part of ONEConnect 2021.

Addressing the ceremony, SPIRIT Slovenija acting director Rok Capl praised foreign investors for bringing excellence, advanced technologies and diverse experience to Slovenia. This makes them a vital and strategic part of the country's business environment.

"They are oriented towards the future, because they have good access to funding and can expand faster ... and they are excellent ambassadors of Slovenia and its economy in their home countries," he added.

The 2021 Slovenia FDI Awards went to the dairy Ljubljanske Mlekarne in the green category, the ICT company Comtrade in the major regional employer category, and the paper mill Papirnica Vevče in the long-term presence category.