THE SLOVAK arm of global electronics concern Sony has announced plans to expand production at its factory in west Slovakia's Trnava but says it will not be significantly increasing investment.
Sony Slovakia, which makes TV sets and components for export, reported a production increase of 3 million items to 6.92 million for the 2001-2002 fiscal year ending in March, as well as sales of Sk7.3 billion ($166 million) for the same period.
"The long-term plan of the company is to double this output over the next three years," said Werner Student, director of Sony Slovakia.
While the company has invested Sk947 million ($22 million) since entering Slovakia in 1996, Student said that the firm was not planning any large investments in the near future, but instead will seek to increase productivity and efficiency in its current operations.
Besides doubling the current annual production of 600,000 TV sets, Sony wants to use the Slovak plant to supply transformers, coils and electron tubes to factories in Europe, North America and Asia.
