Richard Higgs
EUROPEAN PLASTICS NEWS
Published: May 8, 2014 9:04 am ET
Updated: May 8, 2014 9:07 am ET
Spanish car parts specialist Grupo Antolin has launched a new joint venture interior components plant in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia with Russian company Avtotechnika.
The new 10,000-square-meter facility, which began manufacturing early this year, will produce chiefly car headliner and window regulator components for a number of clients including Volkswagen, Ford, Renault, GAZ, Skoda and General Motors, the Burgos-based group announced.
Antolin formally joined forces with Avtotechnika of Nizhny Novgorod, taking a 75 percent stake in the Russian partnership Antolin Avtotechnika Nizhny Novgorod in November last year. The Spanish group already operates an interior part plant in St Petersburg, Russia.
The new partnership has invested around 6.15 million euros ($8.5 million) in the new manufacturing project in the west Russian industrial center.
The new operation, which uses thermoforming and polyurethane forming technologies, is set to raise its workforce to 145 by next year, said the Spanish car lighting, door, seating and overhead systems group. Currently, employees work a three shift day over five days a week.
Avtotechnika, which began to supply the automotive sector in 2000, started life producing sound insulation components adding nonwoven needled fleece parts and PU foams.
Late last year, Grupo Antolin announced that its founding family had once more acquired 100 percent control of the group. In December 2013, the Antolin family acquired the remaining 22.8 percent stake in the company from several Spanish savings banks. They had held this share since 2004.
In 2013, the group recorded an annual sales of 2.13 billion euros ($2.9 billion) reporting an operating profit up by 17.5 percent. It has continued to expand globally and now has more than 120 plants and just-in-time centers in 25 countries. | 
