ABB inaugurates new factory in Bulgaria

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, today inaugurated a new facility for producing low and medium voltage products in Bulgaria in the presence of the country’s President Rosen Plevneliev.

The facility is located in the town of Rakovski about 25 kilometers to the northeast of Bulgaria's second largest city Plovdiv and is expected to generate around 600 jobs once fully operational. It is part of a $23-million investment to expand production capacity to serve growing demand in Europe and Asia and will manufacture low-voltage control products and medium-voltage power products.

“This new unit further strengthens our manufacturing footprint in the region and enables us to deliver solutions across Europe, faster and more efficiently” said Bruno Melles, head of ABB’s Medium Voltage products business, a part of the company’s Power Products division.

Morten Wierod, head of ABB’s Control Products business, within the Low Voltage Products division, added: “This represents an opportunity to build on an excellent team in this region. We are committed to develop our footprint in Bulgaria to support our growing business.”

The new unit covering an area of about 15,000 square meters represents the second major investment by ABB in the Plovdiv region. The first greenfield factory manufacturing low-voltage products was built in 2009 and now employs over 1,000 people.

Other ABB production units in the country are located in Petrich for low-voltage products, Sevlievo for high-voltage products and transformers and a turbocharger service station in Varna.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 150,000 people.