Toyota Valenciennes:

300M € investment et 700 jobs

A year after the seventh-generation Yaris hybrid went into production at Valenciennes, Toyota announced plans for a new investment to modernize the plant and position it to manufacture another car model.

Published on 22.01.2018

Agreement for the future

Last July, the Japanese automaker signed an agreement with labor providing for more flexible working hours, with 300 new employees hired on permanent contracts from September 2017 to September 2019. This “agreement for the future” aimed to expand the Hauts-de-France site’s production capacity and enable it to manufacture a second car model.

€300 million investment

Faced with competition from other Toyota plants around the world, the Valenciennes site is poised to manufacture the new vehicle starting in 2020. The plant will use the €300 million investment—supplemented by €11 million from the Hauts-de-France region and €4 million from the Valenciennes urban council—to set up its new manufacturing lines. Once operating at full capacity, it will produce 300,000 vehicles a year, up from 230,000 at present. To accompany the surge in production, the group has announced that it will launch a recruitment campaign in 2020, aiming to hire 400 new permanent employees and raise the total number of jobs to 700. Together the investment and increased production capacity point to a secure future for the Valenciennes plant. The expansion should also deliver significant benefits for automotive equipment manufacturers, who will have to keep pace with the factory’s growing needs.