Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – The Japanese tire producer will invest almost EUR 300m and create 800 jobs. LG Philips has been the only investor to promise more recently.
Poland has won another mega investment project. This is the largest project run by the investment agency PAIIZ and the biggest investment in the after-war history of Zachodniopomorskie region (north-western Poland). Bridgestone, which has a plant in Poznan, western Poland, is going to build a new plant in Stargard Szczecinski. The investment will amount to EUR 200-300m and create 800 new jobs. Further 800 people will be employed in companies delivering to Bridgestone. The project will be part of Kostrzynsko-Slubicka Special Economic Zone. The agreement between the investor and the Polish government will probably be signed in Szczecin.
“We do not comment on this now”, Zdzislaw Rygiel, the spokesman for the municipal authorities in Stargard Szczecinski said.
“We are working at several big investment projects”, Janusz Gawronski from the local office of PAIIZ said only.
Bridgestone, similarly to the whole tire branch, faces bright future. According to specialists, the demand will grow 4 percent annually.
“The market is developing because the car production keeps growing. Poland is a very promising market although more and more companies, not only tire producers, choose to invest in other countries. Pirelli has recently built its factories in Romania and China”, Anna Szwajkowska from Pirelli Polska said.
Bridgestone has a tire plant in Poznan. In 1998, the company started cooperation with Stomil Poznan and a year later they owned 100 percent of the company. They modernized it, increased the production area by four times (from 3 to 12 ha). Today, they employ 1,290 people here. At the beginning of last year, Bridgestone decided to build a plant producing rubber parts in Zarow, next to Wroclaw, south-western Poland. 300 people are to be employed there. Besides, Bridgestone owns the plant of acquired Firestone, which in 2004 decided to build a new plant in Wolsztyn.
The recent tire producer in the region to build a plant has been Korean Hankook. Last year, the company was choosing among Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to build EUR 500m worth plant which would employ 1,500 people. In May 2005, the company said it chose Slovakia. Then, due to problems with public subsidies, Koreans re-started negotiations with Poland and Hungary. They chose Hungary. Production of 10m tires annually will be launched in the second half of 2007.