2008/07/10

IRIZAR EXPANDS ITS PRESENCE IN THE MARKET WITH THE INAUGURATION OF ITS NEW PLANT IN MOROCCO

Irizar, the coach manufacturing company, has inaugurated today, Thursday, 10th July, a new bus and coach manufacturing plant in the Moroccan town of Skhirat, situated just off the main Moroccan highway that links Tangiers with Marrakech, 20 km away from Rabat and 80 km from Casablanca. This new plant makes it possible for Irizar to continue growing and consolidating itself in the Moroccan market in which it has been the market leader in the production of luxury coaches since 1997.

In early 2006, Irizar acquired 60,000 square meters of terrain in Skhirat and in February 2007 it started the construction of a new 15,000 square-meter plant with the collaboration of the Spanish engineering firms Master, S.A. de Ingeniería y Arquitectura and LKS Ingeniería.

José Manuel Orcasitas, Chairman of Irizar Morocco, declared that "the opening of this new plant in Morocco consolidates the strategy of internationalisation of the Irizar Group and allows us to modernise the means with which it can tend to the needs of our customers".

Irizar has invested 25 million euros in the construction and equipment of the new Irizar Morocco installations for the production of buses and coaches. This investment will allow Irizar to obtain an eightfold increase in its production capacity in Morocco reaching over a thousand coaches per year, which is a considerable increase with respect to the production capacity available up till now with which it was only possible to produce up to 140 vehicles per year. The new plant starts with a workforce of over 200 people, duplicating production with respect to the old plant situated in Saleh. The workforce is due to increase over the next few years.

In this sense, Abouchane Mohammed, General Director of Irizar Morocco has qualified the important headway represented by the new installations as most positive. These installations have considerable means both in terms of technology and production. "It is for us a motive of pride to have these installations which, I am sure, will allow us to differentiate ourselves even more from our competitors."

These installations have all the equipment and the most modern means to carry out production with the same technology and quality as in the rest of Irizar's plants situated in Ormaiztegi (SPAIN), Tianjin (CHINA), Botucatu (BRAZIL), Madurai (INDIA), Querétaro (MEXICO) and Pretoria (SOUTH AFRICA).

Irizar Morocco will produce the Century line of luxury coaches, mainly destined to regular and international lines and tourism. It will also produce urban transport buses for the towns of Morocco. It is worth remembering that the Century model is considered amongst the products with the most success in the sector of long and medium distance coaches in Europe, with over 20,000 units sold.

Irizar not only contributes with investments in the technological and economic levels but also with its own style of management based in confidence and on people's capacity with a clear strategy of orientation towards the customers, which differentiates it from its competitors.

In the last fiscal year, 2007, Irizar informed it had reached a new invoicing record. Its business volume reached above the 435 million mark with a production of 3,900 manufactured units.

Internationalisation is a key factor in Irizar's spectacular evolution. Irizar continues being the absolute leader in Spain, one of the most competitive markets in Europe. Irizar is also situated among the three main luxury coach manufacturers in the European Union. In 1991 Irizar was present in five countries (Spain, France, Belgium, Greece and Israel). Nowadays its commercial activity extends itself to over 88 countries.

As a result of its expansion and alliance strategy, the Irizar Group now has, apart from its central headquarters in Ormaiztegi, the following production plants: IRIZAR TIANJIN (China 1995), IRIZAR MAGHREB (Morocco 1997), IRIZAR BRAZIL (1998), IRIZAR MEXICO (1999), IRIZAR TVS LTD. (India 2001) and IRIZAR SOUTH AFRICA (South Africa 2004). These seven projects count on the participation of over 3,100 people.