July 10 (SeeNews) - Canada-based automotive parts supplier Magna International officially opened on Wednesday a paint factory in Slovenia's northeastern Hoce–Slivnica municipality, the government in Ljubljana said.
Slovenian prime minister Marjan Sarec, who attended the ceremony, said the opening of the new paint shop is just the beginning of Magna's investment in the country, the government said in a statement.
The construction of the factory is the largest greenfield investment in Slovenia's history, the statement said, recalling that the government has provided Magna with incentives worth 18.6 million euro ($20.9 million) for the project.
The total investment amounts to 146.4 million euro, the government said.
The paint shop, which currently employs 200 people, started test production in March. It is expected to employ 200 more people in the next three years, while the final number of employees should reach at least 1,000 in the coming ten years, the statement said.
Back in October 2017, Magna said it was starting to build the $100 million paint shop, explaining that the project will complement production at Magna Steyr in Austria's Graz, situated some 75 km from Hoce-Slivnica, which was overloaded.
Magna International runs some 340 manufacturing operations and 89 product development, engineering and sales centres in 28 countries. In Serbia, it operates Magna Seating, which makes seating systems for Renault, Ford and Smart.
($=0.8888 euro)