Seat wants to make a significant increase in its staff, will hire over 1,000 workers
By Andrew, 30 Oct, 2011. 0 Comments
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After eliminating 300 jobs last year, Seat CEO James Muir said that the company is now prepared to expand its staffing by over 1,000 more employees by the end of 2011. Seat currently has 13,500 employees in its global work force. In an Automotive News Europe interview, Muir said that Volkswagen AG’s Spanish subsidiary is ready to resume recruiting. Most of the new jobs will be in Spain, where the unemployment rate is at 20% overall and at 40% for people under 30. Muir also divulged that a lot of money is being invested to upgrade the brand. This year, it is planning to invest over 300 million euros to its product portfolio.
Muir estimates that this figure will be over 1 billion euros over the next four years. Due to this investment, Seat is considered as Spain's third-largest investor. Seat’s investment will go exclusively into research and development. Muir intends to direct Seat back to being profitable as early as 2013 from recording a loss amounting to 311 million euros in 2010.
To accomplish this, it will have a model offensive that begins next year. It also plans to optimize the utilization of Seat’s sole factory in Martorell, Spain, where production of the Audi Q3 was recently added. Muir said that his top goal for Seat is to become profitable again “as sustainably and as quickly as possible.” Muir also expressed certainty that it will achieve its target figures. He added that the installed capacity of Martorell is about 500,000 units. When these new models are presented, it will be able to operate at full capacity in the mid-term. [source: Autonews]
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