WHITE-goods manufacturer Whirlpool Slovakia has invested some Sk3.5 billion (€86.5 million) in its 12 years of operation in Poprad in the Pre??ov region, upping its total output of automated washing machines to 1.5 million units, the news wire TASR wrote.
Last year the company added the production of the high-revolution Alliance and the front-loaded Delta models, transferred respectively from France and Germany, to its Tatry palette.
The moves created 400 new jobs and the construction of the new Prima factory, due to come on line 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 a year. 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 factory producing metal parts, the company expects to create 200 jobs, 40 of them as early as in May. As in the past, however, the company faces problems with a lengthy and difficult land-buying process.
From The Slovac Spectator