€43m investment in Prysmian plants in Romania and Slovakia

“This investment is part of a major plan to increase production capacity and reinforce Prysmian’s competitiveness in the fast-changing telecom market”, explains Antoni Bosch Guilamany, Vice President, Telecom Solutions. “We’re dealing with the largest strategic investment in our business in ten years. The state-of-the-art factories will mainly serve Europe, as well as other regions such as the Middle East and Africa.”

 

“Prysmian wants to offer innovative technological solutions for the dynamic evolution of broadband and development of telecoms networks, in which new players and services are constantly appearing, especially in Europe. The EU connectivity 2025 targets are providing strong stimulation for fibre networks, laying the foundations for the digital economy and future growth. According to these targets, socio-economic drivers such as digital businesses, schools, universities and healthcare facilities should be connected by at least 1-10 Gb/s. All households should connect at 100 Mb/s or higher and 5G ought to cover all urban areas, railways and highways.”

 

 

Outstanding experience

 

Francesco Fanciulli, CEO Prysmian Group Central Eastern Europe, adds: “It is extremely significant that two European centres of excellence for the production of telecom cables are located in Eastern Europe. This confirms Prysmian’s commitment to invest in the most competitive areas in Europe, helping its customers deliver quality and innovation through faster, flexible and cost-effective deployments”.

 

“There was already a great deal of know-how available in Eastern Europe,” Antoni continues. “Here, Prysmian Group is one of the largest cable companies with six production units based in Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic. We wanted new sites in Eastern Europe, not just for competitive reasons, but because we see Eastern Europe as an important, rapidly developing region with markets that haven’t been saturated yet.”

 

“We want everyone visiting the Slatina plant to enjoy an outstanding experience and leave with a great impression. We’ve made sure there’s a nice lay out with reception area, showrooms, meeting rooms and a dedicated path on the shop floor for visitors. There is also a vast window, which allows you to see straight into the factory itself. Work is going according to plan, the building has been completed, new machinery been installed and existing machinery and production lines are being relocated. This has all been planned around existing production and capacity schedules. The entire project should be completed by the end of Q1 2017, when official inauguration ceremonies will take place.”

 

 

Centre of Excellence

 

“Multimedia and datacom are showing continuing, sustainable growth,” explains Anton Obermeyer, Vice President Business Unit Multimedia Solutions. “To keep up with market needs and facilitate further growth, additional capacity was required. The Presov plant was founded in 2006 and continuously enlarged to its current capacity. Its excellent quality, optimized integrated supply chain and competitive position have become a key asset for Prysmian, so it was logical to further increase capacity.”

 

“The existing leased plant was full up, so we decided to build a brand new factory on a greenfield site in the area, with the target of moving equipment from the existing factory to the new one and adding capacity to increase copper and fibre production. Everyone who has visited so far has been excited about the building, the offices and the new possibilities we now have. This development is highly appreciated by our customers who are very interested in visiting us there. The proud people in Presov are happy to show to them around our Production Centre of Excellence, which will be Europe’s biggest factory for Datacom products. The investment makes further growth possible and I’m confident it will help further increase our market leadership in Europe!”