Cooperation with the new customer began two years ago, when the company from Lipik submitted its first bid for a project that is now headed for implementation.
Croatian company Lipik Glas will this year start production of sets of windscreens which will be installed in London taxis. The London taxi company LTI, owned by Chinese company Geely, which also owns Volvo, has begun changing its traditional and famous London taxis, and all windshields on the new cars will be produced in Lipik, reports Večernji List on February 17, 2017.
Taxis will be of a similar design, but more modern, and will have an electric or hybrid drive. Cooperation with the new customer in the field of automobile industry began two years ago, when the company from Lipik gave its first bid for the project that is now headed for implementation. Prototypes have already been shipped, and mass production should start in the summer.
“We already work for English car producers, and the contract for taxis was won due to the fact that it is a smaller series, and we are specialized precisely for such production. It is a very important contract, because the number of windshields will be substantial for us. The planned quantities are about 7,000 per year, which will in future make about ten percent of our income”, said CEO Daniel Zadjelović.
The glass factory in Lipik is currently nearing completion of an investment cycle worth 3.6 million euros, which was launched last year. The company will get about 1,500 square metres of new production facilities and will start using new technologies that will enable increased productivity with higher quality and cheaper end products.
The new production line in Lipik Glas should be put into operation around 15 March. Most of the production will continue to be tempered and laminated glass for the automotive industry. Total revenues last year amounted to 13 million euros, which was about a million euros more than the year before, and this year plans call for an increase by a further ten percent.
“In the last few weeks, we have hired thirty new employees, so today the factory employs the total of 205 workers. In the next two years, we plan to invest 15 million kuna a year in new machinery and manufacturing plants”, said Zadjelović.
