The current Hoval plant in Istebné. (source: My Orava/Martin Pavelek)
A company from Liechtenstein, a small principality set between Austria and Switzerland, plans to build a new plant in northern Slovakia.
The Hoval company, which runs seven plants around the world and employs 2,200 people, intends to manufacture heat pumps in Istebné, Orava region, from spring 2024.
The investment shall exceed €60 million and 400 people should find a job at the plant, which will make the firm one of the major employers in the area, the My Orava website writes.
Opened in 2004, Hoval's current plant in the Orava region is already one of Hoval's largest plants alongside the one in Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. It employs 250 workers who produce air-conditioning technology, boilers and accessories for boilers.
Recruitment has begun
The firm will start producing heat pumps in spring of this year in one current hall.
Hoval is already hiring specialists and other technical and administrative workers. The company is also gradually recruiting workers for production.
Hoval claims that it will create a training centre for employees at its plant.
Better cooperation with schools
Changes will take place in its technology centre, where the firm will focus on automation, construction and development.
"We will expand dual education, cooperation with secondary schools and universities in order to educate the experts we need," said Tomáš Horňák, head of the Hoval plant in Istebné.
He added that the firm will build a new parking space with chargers for e-cars, run its own bus service, and use heat pumps to heat and cool the plant's premises, in addition to the application of other measures to fight climate change.
