Magna opens Czech seating factory to serve BMW

Magna International has opened a seating factory that will employ 300 people and supply BMW in Europe.

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

Magna, in a statement on Thursday, did not reveal the financial terms of the contract with BMW or how much the new factory cost to build.

The plant, with 20,000 square feet of production space, has the capacity to make more than 360,000 seat sets annually. The plant has created 150 new jobs and is expected to add an additional 150 employees throughout 2019.

"Continuing to win business with a customer like BMW Group is critical to our global growth," Mike Bisson, president of Magna Seating said in a statement.

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 centers around the rest of the world.