Member Article

130 new jobs for Sunderland

A French car parts supplier is set to open a new factory in Sunderland, creating 130 jobs in the area.

Financière SNOP Dunois (FSD) Group now plan to invest millions in converting the former TRW Valves plant in Washington into a UK base for body parts production.

Jean-Francois le Bos, Group Chief Finance Officer and member of the FSD Board of Management, Yannick Jiquel, Director of Western Area, and Xavier Chaptal, Project Manager have travelled from Paris to announce the decision by SNOP to set up in Sunderland. The 130 jobs will be filled within SNOP UK’s first two years at Washington.

SNOP’s Yannick Jiquel said: “We’re genuinely delighted that SNOP can announce its decision to invest in Sunderland today.

“The location is ideal for us, close to Nissan and to its supply chain, and there are many experienced, skilled people in this area which is critical to ensure we have a high quality future workforce.”

Sunderland is fast developing a reputation as a vibrant automotive centre, which will be further strengthened by this latest announcement. In 2011 Lear Corporation brought 300 new jobs to the city, and in early 2012 Nissan and Unipres announced further growth plans, which will create further automotive jobs in the city.

Dave Smith, Sunderland City Council’s chief executive welcomed the announcement. He said: “It’s great news that a leading automotive component company has chosen to locate its first UK manufacturing facility in Sunderland. It strengthens our reputation as an automotive hub for the UK and will bring 130 new jobs to the city.”

The decision to open a base in Sunderland was formalised after 18 months of discussions between the firm’s’ senior executives and Sunderland City Council.

SNOP UK Tony Brown said: “Sunderland City Council’s business investment team has been extremely helpful throughout our discussions, and has worked with us to find an ideal location for our UK manufacturing base.”

Chief Executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce, James Ramsbotham added: “ Financière SNOP Dunois (FSD) Group’s decision to base itself on Wearside further cements the area’s reputation as a genuine hub for automotive manufacturing.

“This is a high quality inward investment success and is further evidence of the global recognition of our highly-skilled workforce’s ability to deliver.”

Financière SNOP already has 26 manufacturing plants across Europe, Turkey and Morocco, and supplies parts for the Nissan Leaf, Qashqai and Note vehicles. They already have 30 employees working within the Nissan Sunderland plant, who will be relocated to the new premises in Washington when it opens in autumn 2012.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .