The plant will have two vehicle assembly lines, the already existing one of the B-Max car and the EcoSport line. The number of employees will reach again almost 3,700, as many as the plant had in 2007 upon the signing of the privatization contract, up from the current 2,715.
“We are glad we can announce today we are adding almost 1,000 new jobs to the state-of-the-art manufacturing plant we have in Craiova, taking the total number of employees to more than 3,650,” John Oldham, Ford Romania president said.
At the same time the company continues preparation of the plant to support the manufacturing of the new Ford EcoSport, he added.
The new people will be hired in order to take production of the plant to more than 100,000 units. EcoSport sold almost 60,000 units last year while not available on all markets as the new generation will. B-Max, too, sold 40,000 units last year.
Since Renault Captur, the most popular small SUV, sells more than 200,000 units a year, the new EcoSport could see sales of more than 100,000. In all, with an output of at least 140,000 cars, the plant in Craiova could generate more than EUR3 billion revenue, climbing to second place among exporters, and beating Rompetrol’s EUR2 billion exports.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)