site.btaSchneider Electric Starts Building Second High-Tech Plant in Bulgaria

Schneider Electric has started building its second high-tech plant in Bulgaria on an area of 8,000 square metres in Plovdiv Region, Plant Manager Martin Yordanov said at the groundbreaking event. The plant owns a site of 100,000 sq m and is planning to grow to its maximum extent within 10 years. BGN 107 million will be invested in the construction of the new plant.

Outgoing Economy and Industry Minister Bogdan Bogdanov recalled that talks about a second plant began in December 2022. Schneider though Hungary could be a better location for the plant at the time, and the InvestBulgaria Agency and Trakia Economic Zone take credit for the implementation of the project in Plovdiv, Bogdanov said.

The project is important because it generates value added and the region's supply chain will develop even further. It is also the first project which is seeing a change in the government's work with investors, the Economy Minister said. The project gets direct state aid not just for the construction of road infrastructure, but direct financial aid for the implementation of the investment, which makes the State a proactive partner in building such large projects.

The new plant in Plovdiv will assemble, test and package automatic circuit breakers and other low-voltage electrical products. The aim is to create a state-of-the-art industrial plant. It will be built by Glavbolgarstroy. The other contractors will become known after one more tender.

The engineering team wants the new plant to meet Schneider's Advanced Smart Factory global standards and to get a LEED gold certificate for the building. This will certify the achievement of very low emissions, including of the input building materials, as well as high levels of energy and production efficiency, the company said.

The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by French Ambassador Joël Meyer, Deputy Innovation and Growth Minister Martin Gikov, InvestBulgaria Agency Executive Director Mila Nenova, Plovdiv's Deputy Mayor for Education, Business Development and European Policies Vladimir Temelkov, local government representatives and company employees.