WITTE Automotive, one of the leading locking system manufacturers of the automotive sector, is expanding its manufacturing print in Bulgaria. The German automotive supplier is building a new factory in Bulgaria- WITTE Automotive Bulgaria 3 (WAB3), which will have a total floor area of about 23,000 square meters.
The investment, exceeding 25 million euros, will almost double the production capacity of the plant for assembly processes. The project “Second expansion of a plant for the production of electronic and mechanical parts for the automotive industry, Ruse” is expected to be implemented by the end of 2025, says Dr. Hristo Hristov, General Manager WITTE Automotive Bulgaria for Automotive Tomorrow. He points out that during the implementation period of the project and as a result of it, more than 200 new jobs will be opened. “The reasons behind the investment are complex and consist of several determining factors. Most importantly, the Ruse plant has built excellent trust with WITTE’s customers – e.g. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo, Volkswagen, Ford and has been nominated for many of the key future projects of said customers. Also, a very high level of trust was built in the owners and the senior management of the company, thanks to the consistent and sustainable results that the staff in Ruse continuously shows. Moreover, the economic indicators of the plant in Ruse are very good thus granting a base for long-term planning. All this – the trust from the clients, the trust from the owners and the central management, the lasting and sustainable results, the economic circumstances, determined that WITTE needs the project in Bulgaria to continue developing and this is the prerequisite for the planned expansions and doubling of production,” explains Dr. Hristo Hristov.
Investors climate in Bulgaria
With a 6.9 M population, 71.000 billion euro GDP, 68.5% eemployment rate, according to data from InvestBulgaria Agency, neighboring Bulgaria is attracting investors, mainly in the automotive, electronics, healthcare and lifescience sectors. Describing the advantages that Bulgaria offers for investors, the General Manager of WITTE Automotive Bulgaria says: “The country offers the security of EU membership, operating costs are still at levels about 2 times lower than the costs in the countries of Central Europe and about 4 times compared Western European countries. For the last 15- 20 years, many successful investment projects have been set-up here, which is also attractive for future investors. The cooperation with the municipality in Ruse and with the Bulgarian government is on a professional level and we get the support we need.”
Challenges for WITTE Automotive Bulgaria operations in 2022
Also in 2022, product-based businesses from all over the globe faced supply chain challenges. And this was no different for WITTE Automotive Bulgaria. Still, the company managed to grow its business 30% compared to 2021 and to reach 180 million euros in sales. Among top 3 supply chain challenges in 2022 for the company, Dr. Hristo Hristov lists the Omnicron wave of Covid-19 in early 2022, which led to a large percentage of staff absenteeism, making it difficult for the company to maintain the production; maintaining the best level of inventory of raw material available and volatility of customer demand. “The supply chain was hampered by increased material and energy costs, as well as supply volatility due to a combination of health (Covid), political (the war) and economic (the inflation) factors. The practices we apply in order to mitigate the risks are flexible management of production capacity also with a polyvalence of workers, material stocks and measures to improve process efficiency. The war in Ukraine has not directly affected us as we have no suppliers or customers in Ukraine and Russia. But the reflection came with the high level of inflation of materials and energy resources, which created difficulties by increasing cost. The challenges listed above catalyze measures to improve productivity and efficiency. In this regard, we have been systematically working in this direction for several years, implementing automation projects in logistics (autonomous mobile robots), in production (monitoring our key performance indicators), as well as process support software applications to plan and control our production (manufacturing execution systems)” concludes Dr. Hristo Hristov.
Dr. Hristo Hristov, General Manager Witte Automotive Bulgaria “Forecasts by organizations such as IHS point to moderate growth in the automotive industry for 2023 in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The business plan of WITTE Automotive Bulgaria foresees a growth of more than 10% for 2023 with many new projects. We will also have a very big challenge to start the construction of the 3rd stage of the plant (WAB3), with which we will double the production capacity and open opportunities for expansion for the next 5-10 years.”
WITTE Automotive Bulgaria 3 in numbers
- +25 million euros investment
- 23.000 sqm total floor area
- + 200 new job to be created
