Jaguar Land Rover Opens Plant in Nitra, Ready to Double Production

Nitra, October 25 (TASR) – Jaguar Land Rover officially opened its new production plant in Nitra Strategic Park on Thursday, TASR learnt on the same day.

The company now employs 1,500 people, and by the end of next year it should have 2,800 employees, said operations director Alexander Wortberg. Total production capacity is 150,000 cars a year.
The British company has invested €1.4 billion in the construction of the car plant, while another €129 million was provided by Slovakia as state aid for the construction project. “Slovakia has a healthy business environment attractive for major global investors. The Government supported this project with investment aid, and I’m pleased that the European Commission also approved the support a few days ago,” said Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD).
The construction of the plant in Nitra was prepared by Jaguar Land Rover for four years, and construction itself began in September 2016. The new plant covers an area of 300,000 square metres. The first model to be produced at the factory is the Land Rover Discovery, which will be made exclusively in Nitra. “The next model is planned in the next two years, but we won’t specify it yet,” said Wortberg. The vehicles produced in Nitra will be sent to more than 170 countries. The company plans to export three quarters of its production by rail, the rest by road freight transport.
The company is also ready to further expand its operations in Nitra. “We can double our capacity to 300,000 cars a year if the market situation allows. We’ve already begun with requests for factory expansion permits in order to be able to respond quickly when needed. However, we haven’t yet adopted a decision on capacity expansion,” stressed Wortberg.
According to the operations director, the decision to invest in Slovakia is part of a broader strategy that was adopted before the referendum on Brexit, and the current situation doesn’t affect the firm’s plans in Slovakia. “It’s important to maintain an open market that is set well in order to keep conditions unchanged. A hard Brexit could cause us big problems. We have components that we import from the UK. We’re getting ready for a variety of scenarios in order to make sure that their supply will be secure,” he stated.