IRIZAR MAROC DELIVERS THE FIRST "NUEVO CENTURY" UNITS MANUFACTURED AT ITS SKHIRAT PLANT TO MOROCCAN TRANSPORT OPERATOR C.T.M.

The 16 units delivered today form the first part of an order for 30 coaches to be completed during February.

Irizar has taken on an extra 120 people for the Morocco project, doubling output.

At a special ceremony held this morning at Irizars plant in Skhirat (Morocco), Moroccan transport operator C.T.M. took delivery of 16 "Nuevo Century" coaches,  the first batch in an order of 30 units built on a Volvo B12B chassis at the Skhirat plant.

C.T.M. has once again turned to Irizar for the renovation and modernisation of its fleet, reinforcing its service quality and its image to help consolidate its position on the Moroccan market.

The presentation and press conference were attended by senior executives from C.T.M., Volvo and Irizar as well as leading authorities from the Moroccan Transport Ministry.

The "Nuevo Century" model is the favoured luxury coach in Morocco and one of the best-selling in the world since it first came out in 1991, with more than 20,000 units now operating. It is considered to be one of the most successful models in the long and medium-distance sector in Europe.

This model has been transferred by the group to Irizar Maroc as part of Irizars strategy of continuous product improvement in Morocco and standardisation of products and processes with other plants in the group.

Irizar has begun developing the strategy presented on 10 July 2008 on the opening of the Skhirat plant, the first step of which has been to take on an additional 120 staff and double output at the new plant  which as well as the New Century, is also making the first units of the urban model, Irizar Iria.

The new facilities in Skhirat, 20 kilometres south of Rabat, will enable Irizar  to increase its production capacity in Morocco to 1000 units a year, well above current output.

Irizar's total investment in the plant comes to close to ?25 million. Like all the main plants in the group, it has all the most modern equipment and resources for producing coaches of the highest quality.

Irizar not only makes technological and economic investments but also has its own management style based on the trust and capacity of the people who comprise each of its projects, with a clear strategy of customer orientation giving it differentiated value.