Meet Ljubex International: A 35-year legacy. Second-generation led. Official Schaeffler & ZVL distributor for Serbia. Trusted by industry. Powered by women.
If you were starting your own company, would you name it after yourself? One Ljuba from Serbia had a clear, unequivocal answer to that question: absolutely yes.
Ljubex International is a family-owned company based in Belgrade, Serbia, that has, for more than 35 years ensured production plants run without downtime.
Ljubex began as a one-man show. In the early (and rather turbulent) 90s, Ljuba, the company’s founder, decided to step into entrepreneurship and start his own company. At the time, this was an unusual (and brave!) move in Serbia. The former Yugoslavia was on the brink of collapse, the economy was unstable, and Ljuba had a small child at home (Tamara), with another on the way (Tamara’s younger sister).
Nevertheless, Ljuba chose a path that only a few dared to take back then, and founded his own company, symbolically named Ljubex. The word ‘International’ was added intentionally, reflecting his ambition to engage in foreign trade as well.
Fast forward 35 years: primarily through the BearingNet platform, Ljubex has exported to almost every continent. Ljubex packages have travelled as far as Argentina, Poland, Germany, the United States, and even New Caledonia.
Ljubex is also the first-ever distributor of Schaeffler in Serbia, celebrating 30 years of partnership this year. Coincidentally, this is also the year Tamara turns 39, the same age Ljuba was when he founded the company.
Tamara is Ljuba’s daughter, and for many years, that is mostly how the market knew her. That changed a little over three years ago, when she decided to join the company after a career in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, retail, and e-commerce.
Her arrival was almost accidental and, therefore, unexpected. A regional Marketing Director in a company backed by one of the world’s most significant investment funds leaves that position and the e-commerce industry… to sell bearings!
When Tamara first started appearing in the industry and attending meetings, many assumed she would get bored and eventually give up. Instead, she says she is having the best time of her professional life.
At the time she joined Ljubex, Tamara had no idea how relevant the topic of second-generation leadership would soon become, not only in Serbia, but across the entire region. Much of Serbia’s private, family-owned sector was founded in the same period as Ljubex, meaning the first major generational transition is now underway.
Joining a family business and transitioning from the first to the second generation is a great privilege, but it also carries great responsibility and, some would say, pressure due to expectations. Respecting what was built does not mean preserving it unchanged.
Before joining Ljubex, Tamara had an honest conversation with Ljuba about expectations. She told him:
“I will come, but only if we are going to change things.”
Change, in this case, means understanding and respecting existing values, experience, and knowledge, while having the courage to take steps forward and do things differently. Over the past three years, Ljubex has been transforming from a classic distributor into a modern industrial solutions partner. The company’s focus has expanded beyond supplying bearings and preventing failures to helping customers optimise maintenance and reduce costly downtime through predictive maintenance.
Yet, transformation is not only about strategy or technology, it is also about leadership culture. That is why Ljubex introduced its own values system last year, built around proactivity, reliability, responsibility, and team spirit.
Although Ljubex operates in what many still consider a ‘male-dominated’ industry, two-thirds of its employees are women. Some have been with the company for more than 20 years, like Ivana, a Sales Support Specialist who joined Ljubex at the age of 20 through a student employment program. Others joined less than six months ago, coming from large international systems, such as Würth.
“Being a woman in heavy industry still raises eyebrows, especially in the Balkans,” Tamara explains.
“But credibility is not built through stereotypes; it is built through competence, consistency, and results.”
At Ljubex, leadership today is collaborative, data-driven, and forward-looking. The company continuously invests in knowledge, systems, and people, professionalising processes while preserving the entrepreneurial spirit that defined it from day one.
So, who really runs the bearings world? Those who understand that reliability is built daily. Those who lead with knowledge, innovation, and responsibility.
And increasingly, girls.
Source: Best Bits
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