Tier one auto interiors supplier Inteva Products is officially launching two new manufacturing plants in Eastern Europe – a region “critical” to its global growth plans.
In April, the US group formally opened a new 20,000-square-meter, state-of-the-art facility on the outskirts of Rychnov in central Czech Republic which will employ 250. This plant, originally planned for a site in Liberec but switched after planning protests, will manufacture vehicle window operating parts and roller blinds.
Inteva Products still operates one production unit in Liberec where, last year, it employed around 330.
The official opening of its new Czech operation, attended by local dignitaries including Martin Puta, the governor of the Czech region of Liberec, was led by Inteva Products group president, CEO and founder Lon Offenbacher.
The U.S. group, based in Troy, Michigan, was also due to officially open another auto parts production unit on a new site in the town of Oradea in northwestern Romania in the first week of May.
Only last summer, Inteva established its first plant in Oradea, employing more than 100, to produce parts for car roof systems, which almost doubled its manufacturing capacity in Romania. The firm already operated a plant in Solanta, Romania.
Inteva, formed in 2008 from the former interiors operation of Delphi Automotive — which was itself spun off from General Motors — now has plants around the world and employs 15,000 in 18 countries. Operations in central and Eastern Europe include plants in Poznań, Poland; Lozorno, Slovakia; Győr, Hungary and Liberec in the Czech Republic.
Elsewhere, Inteva has production facilities in North America, Brazil, across the Asia Pacific region, including in Japan, South Korea and China, and in South Africa.
The group covers a wide area of component and product manufacture including interior systems, closure and roof systems and motors and electronics.
Inteva, which uses a range of composite and other materials, employs a variety of plastics processing, especially for vehicle interiors, such as injection molding, sheet extrusion, extrusion compression and foam molding, thermoforming and pressure lamination.
Its interiors product line ranges from center consoles to instrument panels and door trim to cockpits and headliners.