(source: Sme)
“By taking over the tool room, Porsche marks an important landmark in the production of sport vehicles of the future,” Porsche’s president Matthias Müller said.
The carmaker will take over a bigger part of the current Dubnica plant: the current company Kuka Enco Werkzeugbau will be divided into two; it will keep one of them, with 35 employees, which will continue to make automated robotic assembly lines for the automotive industry, Kuka Enco Werkzeugbau legal representative Pavol Turňa told the Hospodárske Noviny daily, adding that it will also have a technology centre that will employ 80 qualified designers.
The second part, with 155 employees, the tool room, will be detached and taken over by Porsche AG, with the current activities to be preserved: development, construction, production and fine-tuning (at the client’s location) the moulding tools for the production of exterior parts of the bodywork.
“Porsche, the board and representatives of employees will care for long-term preservation of jobs,” head of the Porsche unions, Uwe Huck, said as quoted by the daily.
Both plants acquired by Porsche are close to the lines where the carmaker finalises its projects.
“The tool room in Dubnica thus played a big role in Porsche’s decision to buy the tool-section from Kuka Systems,” Turňa explained. He refused to reveal the sum, however. The companies have already agreed on the deal; they are only waiting for the Antimonopoly Office to approve the transaction.
Experts evaluate the coming of Porsche to Slovakia very positively.
“This is a gain for the whole Slovak economy, as many automotive suppliers and sub-suppliers are connected with this plant,” economist Vladimír Baláž from the Institute for Forecasting of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, said.
“Porsche AG is definitely a good sign for Slovakia and it confirms the general interest in our country,” ex-president of the Automotive Industry Association, Jozef Uhrík, summed up for the daily.
