4% OF THE COUNTRY’S EXPORT COMES FROM 50 COMPANIES IN THE AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR.
The technology development office of Johnson Controls employs 563 engineers, making it the largest one of the company worldwide. For comparison, the center in the U.S. employs 234 engineers, the one in France 206 and the center in Yokohama, Japan only 7. The Bulgarian subsidiary of Johnson Controls is one of the nine technology centers in the world, the rest are located in Germany, France, USA, Japan and Slovakia. The engineering network of the company worldwide includes over 250 companies in more than 30 countries. The daughter company in Sofia offers design and development of automotive electronics. Among the largest customers are BMW, Ford, Renault, GM, Opel and Volkswagen.
“We have 5 R & D centers worldwide, one in Sofia, France and the USA and two in Germany. We started with 50 people and now we have over 560.We decided to invest in Bulgaria due to several main factors, such as the lowest wages in the EU, the great number of educated people, speaking foreign languages, the highest number of German speaking academics in Eastern Europe and culture that is close to the culture of Western Europe. Bulgaria is a member of EU, NATO and the WTO. Its legal framework is harmonized with the EU, it is financially stable and its corporate tax is only 10%. As a location Sofia is 2-3 hours away from Western Europe by plane while our office is 10 minutes away from the airport”, Matthew Cole, Engineering Vice President at Johnson Controls said during the International Automotive Conference in Sofia.
“We were among the first, but we are not the only one from the automotive industry that invest in Bulgaria. The number of the companies is more than 50. They employ more than 9,000 employees and provide 4% of the country’s export. Currently in Sofia there are several engineers from India who are being trained and share the experience from our technical center there. We are not moving our office, but developing the business in India “, Cole said.
Speed-Press Agency