HOME-appliance manufacturer Whirlpool Slovakia has invested Sk3.5 billion (€86.5 million) in its 12 years of operation in Poprad in the Prešov region, upping its total output of automated washing machines to 1.5 million units, the TASR news wire wrote.
Last year the company added the production of the high-revolution Alliance and the front-loaded Delta models, transferred to its Tatry factory lines from France and Germany, respectively.
The moves created 400 new jobs and the construction of the new Prima factory, due to begin operations near the end of this month.
Whirlpool aims to set up a global production centre of automated washing machines with an annual output of 2.5 million units. The 2004 business plan calls for upping the cumulative total to 1.8 million washing machines.
With other plans, including building a wastewater treatment complex and a metal parts factory, the company expects to create 200 jobs, 40 of them as early as May. As in the past, however, the company is facing problems with a lengthy and difficult land-buying process.
