Work on a new factory that will produce luxury cars for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has begun in Slovakia after the firm nailed down two contractors for the job.
Japanese group Takenaka and Czech company Vces will join the project and see the $1 billion undertaking through to completion.
In a statement by JLR, a spokesperson said the construction of the new plant, estimated at $800 million, will employ a workforce of around 3,000 and will create thousands of extra jobs involving a broad network of suppliers that it will invest $200 million in.
A Slovakian department of commerce representative, Mikhail Sobotney said the project “will be a huge boost for the country.”
JLR mentioned that the new plant will feature state of the art conveyor belt technology from German robotics maker Kuka, and they expect the factory to be operational in January 2018.
Operations manager Alexander Wortberg told a press gathering, “This is a hugely exciting time for JLR and we are looking forward to getting started producing fantastic models of Jaguar. There will be two different models of the Land Rover each with a few variants.”
Although an official decision has not been made yet, the plan is to double the capacity of the plant from the initial 160,000 cars per year to over 320,000 by 2025 with further investment.
Some observers thought Britain’s decision to leave the European Union in June would affect JLR’s future investments in the financial bloc, but the company’s chief executive Ralf Speth was quick to tell journalists, “This is the biggest single investment JLR have taken part in for a very long time and the largest ever direct investment in Slovakia by a foreign firm. The UK might be leaving the E.U. but for us the bloc is still of great importance.”
The automotive sector is a primary source of revenue for the Slovakian nation, making up 25 percent of its total exports.
“Effectively Slovakia is the biggest per capita car maker in the world,” says Softbank CIBC International Managing Director and co-head of Portfolio Trading James Coleman. “It may be a poor nation currently but it is also the fastest growing in the E.U.”
