Newly build plant to manufacture car seats will employ hundreds of people the Plzeň region

date added 2013-10-25

Faurecia, the sixth largest supplier for the automotive industry in the world, continues to develop its activities in the Czech Republic. On Friday, 18th October, the company officially launched a complete production of car seats predominantly for BMWs in a new plant close to Plzeň, built by Panattoni. In the following years it is estimated to employ up to 800 people.

"In the close surrounding of the plant within a commuting distance, there are around 10,000 people looking for work so a company which can employ almost a thousand people will help significantly," said Governor of the Plzeň region Milan Chovanec at the occasion of the opening. "For me, this opening proves that the Czech Republic is an attractive country for new investments. When the state, local administration and private entrepreneurs cooperate well, it is possible to attract such important investors."

The construction of the new plant to manufacture car seats started in a plant between the villages of Nýřany, Úherce and Zbůch in November last year. Since then over 420 people have been employed in the new Faurecia plant. "Until 2015 numbers of employees in our plant should double. The entire plant is in full operation at the moment but we are preparing another production line which will provide jobs to other people from the Plzeň region. They, as well as the current employees, will be able to use the shuttle transportation to work as we have arranged, at our expenses, transportation of employees from nearby villages to morning and afternoon shifts," says Director of the new plant Ing. Vladimír Suchý.

Developer Panattoni, who built the plant for Faurecia, helped attract the investment with almost a thousand new vacancies to Nýřany. "We managed to build and hand over the hall, which is one of the largest investment projects of the last year, within the deadline, despite the recent floods," emphasises Managing Director of Panattoni in the Czech Republic Pavel Sovička.

"In the first half of 2013 new hires were getting experience in our affiliated plants abroad. Now the production is taking place in the new plant, so the employees with the experience acquired abroad are helping run it. We still keep hiring new employees for the next year," comments on the recruitment status Stanislava Plachá, HR Director for ČR and FECT Eastern Europe. "We are looking for specialists and professionals in all departments, such as production, quality, logistics and maintenance. All vacancies can be found on www.faurecia.jobs.cz or www.agenturatriangle.cz, where they are regularly updated."

The opening of the plant is for Panattoni, according to its Marketing and Sales Director Klára Fritsch, a testimonial that the interest of investors in the Czech Republic is growing. "We have been noticing signs of a revival in the property market since the last year. Therefore, last year we decided to expand significantly, and together with our partner group Accolade, we started offering six industrial parks to investors in the Czech Republic and Slovakia," explains Klára Fritsch.

The new Faurecia Plzeň JIT plant will be manufacturing complete car seats especially for BMWs Series 1 and other types. The sequential production ensures a perfect and fast delivery of complete seats to BMW plants in Leipzig and Regensburg. The seats made in the Czech Republic will be transported and immediately assembled in BMWs. This way storing will be minimised and time will be saved. It takes only 15 hours from the moment when the seats are loaded close to Nýřany to be transported to Germany till when they are in place in BMWs. The favourable location close to Germany also contributes to this and was one of the important factors. Successful execution of these 'long-distance JIT concepts' was the main reason why Faurecia was acknowledged by BMW in the past.

Long-term strategy of Faurecia focuses on growing markets. The Czech Republic is now the fifth most important country in Europe in the area of industrial activities of Faurecia which will have, together with the newly built plant, 7 plants in total in the Czech Republic and will employ over 3,500 employees.