French OEM supplier Plastic Omnium (PO, Levallois; www.plasticomnium.com) has opened a development centre for exterior and structural automotive components at Lozorno / Slovak Republic. The company said it has invested “close to EUR 2m” in the facility with 1,300 m² of office space and 300 m² of laboratories. Currently, it houses 110 employees, but the number could be expanded up to 160.

The centre will host the main support services for industrial development of automotive projects, including computer-aided design (CAD), styling, product engineering, industrial engineering, quality control, sales and purchasing. PO said the goal is to optimise projects by moving closer to customers – for the most part German OEMs – while reducing development costs.

In Lozorno, engineering staff will collaborate closely with the company’s S-Sigmatech international research & development centre based near Lyon / France. Technological cooperation agreements also have been signed with the universities of Bratislava and Košice in the Slovak Republic and Zlín in the Czech Republic.

Plastic Omnium now operates two automotive research centres in France and twelve development centres worldwide, covering all of the major global car manufacturing regions – in particular Germany, the US, Japan and South Korea as well as the Slovak Republic. A new research centre for fuel tanks and systems is currently under construction in France along with a development centre for exterior components in China.