Hub caps Kirchhoff's CEE investment plans
Kirchhoff Polska Assembly, which belongs to the international car-parts producer Kirchhoff Automotive group, plans to make Poland its headquarters for Central and Eastern Europe. "To begin with, Poland was for Kirchhoff a low-cost country - an LCC," said the managing director of Kirchhoff Polska, Janusz Soboń, explaining that initially the firm was only interested in the country as a place to launch production. "Now we see that there are people in Poland who can do more than just produce. Now, in relation to Poland, LCC more often stands for 'leading competitive country'," he says.
At the moment Kirchhoff has three plants in Poland - two in Gliwice and one in Mielec, which, apart from being a production plant, functions as Kirchhoff Automotive's technical and marketing center for CEE. In total, all production plants in Poland generate EUR 100 (zł.392) million annually. While production from the Gliwice plants is solely dedicated to the local Opel factory, 80 percent of Mielec's production goes to the CEE region (including Poland) and 20 percent to Western Europe. Half of Kirchhoff's total production in Poland is designated for export.
Kirchhoff has so far invested more than EUR 50 (zł.196) million in Poland, EUR 40 (zł.157) million of which went into the Mielec facility. By the end of 2007 the company will invest approximately EUR 25 (zł.98) million in CEE, out of which EUR 15 (zł.59) billion will be spent in Poland, where the company records 25-percent growth annually.
Having decided to locate its main office in Mielec, Kirchhoff Polska also plans to expand its Gliwice plants, where it plans to invest EUR 7 (zł.27.4) million in 2007. "We will launch production for customers other than the local Opel factory," says Soboń. "We are already running negotiations with Volkswagen, Peugeot, and Citroen." He stresses that with car producers located in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Tychy in Poland, the region is an 'automotive cluster', where 1.5 million cars are produced every year, a number which will increase to three million by 2010.
