Novares Group has acquired all of its joint venture (JV) company in Wuhan, China, buying the final 30% stake from Yazhong via its Chinese subsidiary Noveastern.
Novares
Noveastern
The company has thereby relocated its Wuhan production plant to a new, modern site equipped with the latest technology, which houses both the production facilities and the Wuhan Technical Center. The site is one of the company’s most modern facilities, conforming to the Group’s global production standards.
Pierre Boulet, CEO of Novares, said: “Novares is an experienced, long-term player in the Chinese market and we are planning to expand our operations in the country. The 100% ownership of our Wuhan operation, combined with the relocation and upgrade of facilities at the site marks an important step in that journey.”
Novares (then Mecaplast) signed the joint venture agreement with Yazhong in 1997, becoming one of a few French companies in China at that time. The JV was created to serve Citroën and Dongfeng for the manufacture of the ZX car.
The €32m turnover Wuhan operation is now located in the Shanghai General Motors (SGM) suppliers park, making it even closer to the General Motors subsidiary. It also serves other automotive customers in the region, including DPCA, Ford, Honda, Renault-Nissan and Dongfeng.
The plant, with more than 300 employees, produces:
- interior plastic components and trunk trims,
- exterior pillars,
- cowl tops, and
- engine parts.
Headquartered in France, Novares is a global plastic solutions provider that designs and manufactures complex components and systems serving the automotive industry. The company creates and produces cutting-edge automotive solutions with technical plastic injection that contributes to cleaner, lighter, more connected, user-friendly cars.
Novares provides engineering and manufacturing expertise to virtually every OEM and many Tier-1 companies in the automotive market. Novares’ 2018 revenues amount to €1.1bn.
The group, including Novares Venture Capital Participations, is present in 22 countries and runs 41 manufacturing plants, seven skill centres, seven technical centres and 17 customer service centres worldwide.
