Ford Romania has confirmed that it has started the process of recruiting 976 people to support production of the new EcoSport compact SUV which is due to start later this year. The company is looking to hire basic and skilled operators to augment the current workforce of 2,715 employed in the vehicle and engine assembly operations.

“We are adding almost 1,000 new jobs at our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Craiova, bringing the total number of people employed here to more than 3,650,” said John Oldham, president of Ford Romania. “The new jobs go hand-in-hand with the transformation of our plant that we started last winter to support the production of the Ford EcoSport.”

Craiova Vehicle Assembly Operations is an important part of Ford’s manufacturing footprint in Europe, with as much as €200 million (Rs 1,528 crore) being invested to build the Ford EcoSport. The vehicle is currently sourced from Ford India.

Significant upgrades have taken place in three key areas of Craiova’s vehicle operations, with 220 new robots to further improve efficiency and quality having already been installed in the Paint, Trim and Chassis, and Body shops.

Since acquiring the Craiova facility in 2008, Ford has invested more than €1.2 billion (Rs 7,580 crore) in its Romanian manufacturing operations. The Ford B-Max multi-activity vehicle is currently built in Craiova, plus Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine – the only engine to win the International Engine of the Year award three years in succession.

The Craiova-built EcoSport will be sold across Europe, excluding Russia, while Ford’s Chennai plant will continue to build the EcoSport for domestic Indian sales and for other export markets around the world. In 2016, Ford’s SUV sales in Europe grew by more than 30 percent, while sales of the EcoSport increased by more than 40 percent and continue to grow in 2017.