Continental Mabor to build tech hub in Famalicão

Continental Mabor is moving ahead with a new technology competence centre at its industrial complex in Lousado, in Vila Nova de Famalicão, bringing together about 500 employees from technology-related areas. The investment adds higher-value engineering and digital capacity to one of Portugal’s biggest industrial export operations.

According to information shared by the German group and the local municipality, the new facility is designed to provide a modern working environment focused on collaboration, research, engineering and digital specialisation. The project is currently in the earthworks phase, and a ceremony marking the start of construction is scheduled for Thursday at the company’s site.

Continental Mabor produces more than 18 million tyres a year at the Famalicão complex. The company, which started operations in 1946 as Mabor and joined the Continental group in 1990, recently reached production of its 450 millionth tyre there.

The German group currently employs more than 3,800 people in Famalicão across four tyre-related companies: Continental Mabor, Continental Solutions Center, Continental Pneus Portugal and Continental Indústria Têxtil do Ave. In June, the company told ECO it had several investments under way and intended to continue investing in northern Portugal.

At the same time, Continental signed a memorandum of understanding with the municipality of Famalicão and FORAVE, a vocational school focused on areas including automation, robotics, industrial maintenance, electronics and mechatronics.

Originally published at Eco.pt