Manufacturer invests €133m to follow Jaguar Land Rover into Slovakia

THE automotive components firm behind plans for a new £126m facility in Staffordshire has revealed it is to build a new plant in Slovakia to capitalise on the expansion in that country of Jaguar Land Rover.

Spanish-based multi-national Gestamp, designs, develops and manufactures metal parts and assemblies for the automotive industry.

The company is investing €133m developing the new plant at Nitra, which is close to JLR’s currently-under-development factory. The new Gestamp plant will be specialising in aluminum products – one of the materials of choice for JLR as it looks to lightweight its vehicles.

The 42,400m² plant, which has attracted financial support from the Slovakian Government, will eventually create almost 230 new jobs. Production could begin next year.

The components being manufactured are intended to reduce the weight and enhance the safety of vehicles. More than 80% of the products produced will be made of aluminium.

Gestamp said the venture strengthened its position as a leading provider of multi-material solutions.

The new Nitra facility will be Gestamp’s eighth plant in the Visegrad region – comprising Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic – and the tenth that the Spanish component manufacturer has currently under construction worldwide.

Another of these is the 550,000 sq ft facility planned for a site in Four Ashes, near Wolverhampton – again close to a Jaguar Land Rover plant – in this instance the £1bn Engine Manufacturing Centre at i54.

The new plant will host stamping equipment and is designed to safeguard the 800 jobs at Gestamp’s current plant in nearby Cannock by progressively moving production to the new facility.

Gestamp said the goal was to create a more efficient and competitive operation which offered the best service to customers including BMW, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan-Renault and Toyota.

Plans are for production to start before the end of 2017.