Bosch’s new production hall at Hatvan factory in Hungary

Hungarian unit of Robert Bosch has opened a new 12,000 square meter production hall at its Hatvan factory on September 6, 2007. By the end of this year, the Hatvan plant would hire 300 new employees. The Hatvan site has been operating on 200,000 square meters, in three halls with 69,000-square meter production area, which has now been extended by this fourth hall, and with it all together 20,000 square meters.

The new production hall is part of Bosch's investment program of €90 million running from 2006 to 2008 for the expansion of the Hatvan plant. „This production hall is a very important development for Bosch’s network. One of the reasons of this is the excellent infrastructure and its perfect location. Now we are even better equipped to meet the rising demand of our global customers for advanced automotive electronics,” said Dr. Volkmar Denner, Member of the Bosch GmbH’s Board of Management, in his remarks during the opening ceremony.

“We have built this new production hall to increase the production capacity of electronic control units, which is a strongly growing product area,” said Thomas Schönenberg, Commercial Manager of the Hatvan plant. Robert Bosch Elektronika Kft currently supplies products to 250 countries with its high standard products. The Bosch factory in Hatvan, which produces mainly electronic control units for engines, controlling a range of engine functions like injection and engine speed, will be delivering automotive electronic products made in the new production hall to various customers throughout Europe.

“These products are contributing to the reduction of CO2 emission,” said Sven Ost, Technical Plant Manager. Since the beginning of 2007, Robert Bosch Elektronika has been hiring and training 120 new employees for the production hall since the beginning of this year, where they start working now. By the end of 2007, the Hatvan plant plans to hire additional 300 new employees of various qualifications. They are seeking engineers for quality checking, testing techniques, production management, logistics and many more.

With over 3,100 employees, Robert Bosch Elektronika is the biggest employer in the region. It posted sales of €650 million last year, and plans to generate around €850 million revenues in 2007. Currently 120,000 automotive electronic products are produced per day, and this will increase to 160,000 units by the end of 2009. In total, Bosch currently has 7,300 employees in Hungary, considerably more than last year (6,300 in January, 2007). (bosch.hu)