Irvine to make UK FHs
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by Alastair Sutcliffe.
• UK production of Volvo's FH tractive unit will begin in June at the company's Irvine plant in Scotland. The £6m investment programme will create 50 jobs.
Irvine will also build the FL12, launched at the Brussels Show (CM 19-25 January). The new trucks will be built on the same line as the FL7 and FL10 rigid and tractor ranges: the FL12 and FH12 will be fitted with Volvo's electronically controlled D12A 12-litre engine.
Plant director Winston Wright says: "Building these two trucks will expand our market capacity for the UK, Ireland and overseas. The bulk of our production will remain right-hand drive, both for home and export markets, but we have the ability to construct all our vehicles in 1.HD and already do so when required. We have already supplied vehicles to Germany, Belgium and Holland and hope to increase that business.
"I expect all our new staff to be recruited locally," he adds. "We have a sizeable list of skilled people who want to come to work here and are p r e pared to wait for this kind of opportunity to arise." A further 50 personnel will be taken on next year to bring the total workforce to nearly 500. Build capacity will increase by almost 60% to 5,500 trucks per year, making Volvo the largest producer of heavy trucks in the UK.