Swedish garden and construction power equipment manufacturer Husqvarna is expanding in Central Europe, with the launch of a new lawnmower plant this year in Mielec, Poland.
The 25,000 m2 facility, due to go onstream in December 2010, will have the capacity to produce 35,000 units per year of three types of ‘rider’ mower and up to 130,000 units of other mower products. Initially, in the first development phase, it will employ up to 150.
Husqvarna, whose product portfolio includes Flymo lawn mowers with a range of plastic mouldings, already has a substantial in-house plastics processing capacity in central Europe. It inherited plants with almost 100 injection presses in Germany and the Czech Republic in 2007 when it acquired German garden equipment maker Gardena.
The €26m Polish project is part of a group-wide restructuring process aimed at reducing costs and improving Husqvarna’s competitiveness. This programme includes consolidation of its operations in Sweden, with manufacture switched to the Mielec facility from mower plant in Huskvarna, Sweden and another mowing products unit in Höör, Sweden.
Poland is one of the group’s most important markets in Europe and it runs a network of 400 dedicated outlets in the country.
In 2009, Husqvarna, which operates a string of manufacturing units around the globe, recorded net income of €3.6bn. Today, Husqvarna is completing the integration of the Gardena takeover and now employs around 15,000 worldwide.
