Just Auto
By Simon Warburton
Varroc Lighting Systems has opened a greenfield 17,000-square metre facility in Tangier, Morocco.
The factory produces headlamps, rear lamps and daytime running lamps for current and future customers located in Morocco, Spain and France. Production started last month.
“This establishment attests, once again, the attractiveness of Morocco as a global platform for production and export of the automotive industry,” said Moroccan Minister of Industry, Moulay Hafid Elalamy.
“The establishment of the engineering and development centre will strongly contribute to the upscaling of the development research activities in the sector.”
For his part, Varroc Lighting Systems president and CEO, Stephane Vedie added: “This facility is one of the cornerstones of our organic growth strategy.
“Its location reinforces our global competitive footprint and gives us a strong position to serve customers here in Morocco and in Southern Europe.”
The facility includes a 12,000-square metre manufacturing facility, 3,000 square metre administration offices and a 2,000-square metre product development and engineering centre featuring optics and electronics laboratories, product validation and tooling maintenance and support.
This is phase one of the project as phase two with an additional 14,000-square metre has already started and will be finished this year. The project should lead to the creation of around 650 jobs by 2024 and a EUR45m (US$50m) investment.
The plant is located in Free zone at Tanger Automotive City, in the industrial platform of Tanger Med, within an ecosystem of 100 automotive suppliers.
This industrial platform is backed by the port complex of Tanger, with key connections to Europe and America.
Since the beginning of 2018, Varroc Lighting has expanded its manufacturing footprint in Brazil, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Vietnam.
