Scottish Plant To Manufacture New Michelin Tyre

Michelin’s Dundee plant is to manufacture the new Michelin Energy 3 tyre being launched this week. This is good news for the workers at the Baldovie plant. The future of the plant had recently been the subject of speculation as Michelin moved production to cheaper labour cost centres in Eastern Europe.

However the announcement of the selection of Dundee to manufacture the new tyre brings a boost in confidence. Plant manager, Trish Bailey said, “This is a very positive signal for the Dundee factory going into the future. The new tyre is at the very heart of the Michelin range and we are going to play a very important role at the centre of its production.

This will contribute to job security for the workers in Dundee.”The company’s factory in Dundee, which celebrated its 30th anniversary with a series of events last year, employs just over 1000 personnel and is now Michelin’s only car tyre producing plant in the UK. During 2002 the plant received around 5 million pounds in investment, with some 1.

6 million pound of that going towards the conversion of one production line to accommodate the manufacture of the new Energy 3 sizes. Dundee will initially produce five of the 30 sizes of the new tyre and the tyres will be for both UK and export consumption. The Energy 3 output is expected to account for 25 per cent of production within 18 months, rising to 50 per cent subject to market acceptance of the tyre.