Adient recruits 100 people after a new contract with Volvo factory in Ghent: “Fantastic news” (Binnenland)

“That is fantastic news for us,” said the management. “It means job security for many years.”

Adient already supplies car seats to Volvo today, including for the Models EX40, EC40 and XC40. In 2018, the factory in Assenede had to abolish the night shift because there was too little certainty about deliveries to the Volvo factory in Ghent. But today Volvo Car Gent therefore clearly opts for a supplier close to the production location for the arrival of the new model.

That is striking, because Adient – a global player who employed more than 70,000 employees in 2023 produces in a challenging market. The competition with low -wage countries is difficult. Last year, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) visited the factory in Assenede to argue for the preservation of the activity.

In recent years, more than 500 people built car seats in the East Flemish factory, but the number of fluctuated. Around 600 employees are currently working in the Belgian department of Adient.

To fulfill the contract for the EX30, another 100 employees are recruited. These are permanent contracts, but also interim workers, because the production speed must be able to be adapted to the car builder’s order book.

At Adient, workers work in two shifts per day. They build more than 1,000 seats per day, good for a total of around 265,000 seats per year. They are all transported by truck to Volvo Cars in the Ghent canal zone. The arrival of the EX30 is a large order because it is a vehicle of which large volumes can probably be produced.

Earlier this week, Volvo Cars announced that it is also looking for additional workers.

350 extra temporary workers are needed to build the EX30, a success model that is only being built today in China. But the Swedish-Chinese car manufacturer will increase production in his Ghent factory to avoid European import rates and to meet the high demand in Europe.