German thermoforming machinery manufacturer Multivac Group has taken the first concrete step in expanding its production capacity at a ground breaking ceremony for a new plant in Bulgaria.
The company, based in Wolfertschwenden, Germany, is investing almost 19 million euros ($21.3 million) to construct and equip the 20,000-square-meter machine components facility on a site in the industrial zone of Bozhurishte, close to the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
At the ground breaking ceremony was Bulgaria's deputy economy minister Lyuben Petrov along with Bozhurishte's mayor Georgi Dimov and Multivac group's chief financial officer Christian Traumann.
The subsidiary, officially called Multivac Bulgaria Production Ltd., will include a main manufacturing building with advanced technology to produce parts for the group's thermoforming packaging machines. Also, a modern warehouse and logistics center, a training center and an administration building.
Furthermore, the site plan includes an IT and procurement center and later, Multivac will establish a research and development center there.
The first phase of the Bulgarian project is scheduled to be completed by September 2017, while the whole development should be finished in 2019. The Multivac subsidiary already runs a national office in Sofia.
The Bozhurishte production site will create a total of 153 jobs in the region. In 2015, Multivac initiated a program to attract young professionals to its new operation in areas such as engineering, IT technologies and logistics.
“Our new plant in Bulgaria allows us to produce high quality parts for our packaging machines and ensures our usual excellent service to customers,” commented CFO Traumann.
Multivac looked at locating the plant in either Romania or Bulgaria but chose the latter largely for its good economic indicators and low currency risk, Traumann explained.