The current investment of $39 mln is expected to double the plant’s capacity by the end of this year, and create 500 jobs, Hungary’s foreign minister Péter Szijjártó said earlier. At the ceremony Kobayashi said that he did not choose Hungary to invest in “by accident” 17 years ago.

The company has a headcount of approximately 900 people in Biatorbágy, in the outskirts of the capital; it is the company’s only production base in Europe.

Alpineʼs Hungarian unit had revenue of more than €200 mln last year, MTI noted.