“If we look at 2015, which is about to end, we hired more than 300 people at our services center in Pipera (north of Bucharest) alone,” Constanta Nazarcu told ZF.
The center is currently employing about 1,300 people who provide services to the entire group.
“We have centers of excellence in engineering, IT and finance. I run a regional financial center providing services to all the divisions of the group, we’re talking accounting, financial reporting and the like here,” the Honeywell executive said.
Honeywell also has a research and development center in Bucharest, which focuses on sensors and wireless technologies.
“We’ve got about 16 people in the lab, they are an elite group, because most of them work on developing international patents.”
Asked whether the US group planned to continue hiring next year, Constanta Nazarcu says it will hire ‘hundreds’ but cannot say exactly how many at the moment.
“We are now devising next year’s budget. We are confident we will keep growing at the same rate, we will hire hundreds of people. Romania plays a key role in Honeywell’s strategy.”
The company will only hire new people for its center in Bucharest and has no plans to expand to other cities for the time being.
“There are no concrete plans for that (opening services centers in other cities i.e.). History shows us such a center works best near a plant where employees can go see the technology and products.”
Honeywell also has two plants in Romania, so its total number of employees in the country stands at about 2,600 people.
“We have two plants in Romania – one in Militari (western district of Bucharest), which makes turbo blowers and is the largest such facility in the world, and a similar plant in terms of headcount, about 750 people, in Lugoj, near Timisoara, which makes smoke and fire detection sensors and systems.”
The two plants export almost their entire production, Constanta Nazarcu said.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)