Facility in the Industrial Zone Kać, Serbia represents €140 million investment and continued growth of Human Machine Interface (HMI) development. A total of 501 new jobs will be created by 2023

Continental today celebrated a major milestone with an official grand opening of its new, state-of-the-art automotive manufacturing facility in Kac, near Novi Sad. The opening ceremony, which included an exclusive tour of the facility was attended by President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, General Manager of Continental Automotive Serbia Sasha Cioringa, Plant Manager Edwin Van Der Kaa, German ambassador to Serbia H.E. Anke Konrad, Minister of science, technological development and innovation Jelena Begović, President of the Provincial Government Igor Mirović, Minister of defense Miloš Vučević, representatives of the Development Agency of Serbia and the other representatives of the state and the City of Novi Sad, as well as the German company management.

The building  occupies an area of 30,000 square metres of production, logistic and office space and is the one of Continental’s largest plants in the world.  The factory in Kać and is equipped with state-of-the-art production technology, and will manufacture advanced electronic vehicle management systems, such as large display solutions Pillar-to-Pillar Displays for premium car brands.

The plant also satisfies the latest standards of environmental protection and workplace ergonomics. Project achieved LEED certification for implementing practical and measurable strategies and solutions in areas including sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

"The complexity, speed and quality of our growth was simply incredible. We have 1,000 highly qualified engineers and we are becoming one of the largest engineering centers in Serbia, but also in Continental itself," said the General Manager Continental Automotive Serbia Sasha Cioringa. He added that the tag "Made in Serbia" is found today on solutions installed in the most modern cars.

The value of the investment is 140 million euros, creating more than 500 new jobs and opportunities for decades to come.

President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić stated that this is a very important factory for the Serbian economy, and that Continental plans to invest an additional 150 million euros and create another 1,500 jobs.

"Continental will reach the figure of three billion exports, will be the largest exporter in two years. We are working on it to open a factory in Nis as well", added Vučić.

He reminded that Germany is our first foreign trade partner and that German investments are the first investments in our country. 79,000 workers are now employed in German factories in Serbia, and the number of German companies for the last ten years has increased from 42 to 124. Trade in goods is more than 8 billion euros.

Continental Automotive Serbia has been operating in Novi Sad for more than five years, when it first formed a Research and Development Center with more than 750 engineers, including a large number of graduate students from the University of Novi Sad. The R&D center is developing solutions for passenger cars and commercial vehicles for Continental's Vehicle networking and information division. This includes products such as instrument panels, radars, cameras, control units for remote monitoring of vehicle position and parameters, vehicle access systems using smartphones, mobile applications, and the main product is a system designed for highly autonomous driving.

The Continental was founded in 1871 in Germany, currently employs more than 190,000 people in 58 countries and markets. The company has been operating in Serbia since 2009. It employs a domestic workforce of more than 2,800.

Photo: TANJUG/STRAHINJA AĆIMOVIĆ