Volvo Truck Poland rolls off number 1,000
"Poland is a very big market, requiring big investments, and you can't leave that to other people," said Jan van Setten, general director of Volvo Truck Poland (VTPL).
VTPL plans to build 1,500 trucks next year, mostly heavy model FH12s and FS7s, and lighter model FL6s. The FH12 was named last year's "Truck of the Year" at the International Trade Fair in Poznan.
Company officials estimate they hold half of the Polish market for imported trucks over 10 tons.
"The Polish market's capacity is so large that our entire production is staying in the country," van Setten said. After next year's planned production hike the company may think about exporting, he added.
A subsidiary of Sweden's Volvo Group through its Volvo Truck Division, VTPL set up offices in Warsaw in December 1993. In mid-1994 the company began assembling trucks at the Jelczanskie Zaklady Samochodowe factory in Jelcz, near Wroclaw, about 300 km southwest of Warsaw. Last March the entire operation moved into a new facility in Wroclaw, a feat van Setten called his team's biggest success in two years in Poland.
The company currently has 11 authorized service centers in Poland. Five more are under construction and should be open by the end of this year, with an additional 10 planned by the end of 1997.
Volvo Group is the largest industrial enterprise in Scandinavia and the No. 2 truck maker in the world, according to VTPL. The group's bus division, Volvo Bus, has entered into a joint venture with Finnish car-body maker Carrus. The new firm, called Volvo Bus Poland, will begin producing city and long-distance busses next year at a plant near VTPL's Wroclaw truck factory. Volvo Bus Poland will employ 200 workers and make 200 busses a year.
VTPL plans to build 1,500 trucks next year, mostly heavy model FH12s and FS7s, and lighter model FL6s. The FH12 was named last year's "Truck of the Year" at the International Trade Fair in Poznan.
Company officials estimate they hold half of the Polish market for imported trucks over 10 tons.
"The Polish market's capacity is so large that our entire production is staying in the country," van Setten said. After next year's planned production hike the company may think about exporting, he added.
A subsidiary of Sweden's Volvo Group through its Volvo Truck Division, VTPL set up offices in Warsaw in December 1993. In mid-1994 the company began assembling trucks at the Jelczanskie Zaklady Samochodowe factory in Jelcz, near Wroclaw, about 300 km southwest of Warsaw. Last March the entire operation moved into a new facility in Wroclaw, a feat van Setten called his team's biggest success in two years in Poland.
The company currently has 11 authorized service centers in Poland. Five more are under construction and should be open by the end of this year, with an additional 10 planned by the end of 1997.
Volvo Group is the largest industrial enterprise in Scandinavia and the No. 2 truck maker in the world, according to VTPL. The group's bus division, Volvo Bus, has entered into a joint venture with Finnish car-body maker Carrus. The new firm, called Volvo Bus Poland, will begin producing city and long-distance busses next year at a plant near VTPL's Wroclaw truck factory. Volvo Bus Poland will employ 200 workers and make 200 busses a year.
