Lenovo to set up new in-house manufacturing plant in Hungary

Lenovo's new in-house manufacturing facility – which will be based in Ullo, in Pest county in central Hungary – will manufacture desktops, workstations and data center products, the company states in a press release. The new manufacturing facility will succeed a long-term partnership in Hungary with contract manufacturer Flex. “This is an important milestone in our global manufacturing network optimization and evolution, and I’m delighted to build on our existing presence in Hungary so that we can better serve our European customers with a new in-house facility,” says Guan Wei, Lenovo Senior Vice President and Head of the Global Supply Chain, in the press release. Anita Lukacs, Lenovo country manager for Hungary added that Hungary remains a well-connected location, close to many commercial hubs. “As our business continues to grow around the world, the new facility will play a key role in how we fulfil and service customer needs in Europe and how we showcase our world-class manufacturing capabilities to customers.” While the company itself did not specify further on the size of the investment or how many new positions the new facility would need to fill; other than the mention that tit would create “new job openings at the site”, a report from HIPA (the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency) sheds more light on the matter. The decision to let go of contract manufacturing and handle the production in-house at the new unit is an investment of EUR 24.7 million, and an investment which is said to create almost 1’000 new jobs, according to HIPA. Prior to this announcement Lenovo's presence in Hungary was based solely on trade, with a workforce of 80 employees. The reports also elaborates that over the past years, considerable capacity has been dedicated to the manufacturing of Lenovo products in Hungary, with the involvement of various partners. With this new future setup, Lenovo will have access to increased production capacity, and according to the company itself, a greater potential for collaboration with local vendors.