Just over a year ago, Magna launched its first-ever seating business and facility with BMW Group. Earlier this month, Magna employees and customer representatives celebrated the opening of another new seating facility to support BMW business.

The new plant in Chomutov, Czech Republic, will be supplying seating systems in various configurations for several BMW models. Production is expected to start before the end of this year.

The state-of-the-art facility uses smart factory manufacturing concepts to increase efficiency and quality output for customers as well as provide a flexible work environment for employees. The plant has a production area measuring 6,000 square metres and the capacity to produce more than 360,000 seat sets per year. The plant has created 150 new jobs and is expected to add an additional 150 employees throughout 2019.

"This is a big win for our employees as well as our community, where we are making a positive economic impact. Our facility is using the latest technology with special attention given to high flexibility so that we can react quickly to new developments and changing requirements of our customers," said general manager Martin Polívka of Chomutov Seating.

"We don't just build seats, we define what's possible and we deliver on that to meet our customers' ever-changing needs," said Mike Bisson, president, Magna Seating. "Continuing to win business with a customer like BMW Group is critical to our global growth and speaks to our ability to produce innovative, cost-effective seating solutions."

Magna's seating group has 16 manufacturing locations in Europe, five of them in the Czech Republic, along with 50 manufacturing locations and six R&D centres around the rest of the world.

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