Since February

May 28, 2008 09:07 GMT  ·  By

Nokia announced today that it had produced the 1 millionth mobile phone at its new factory from Cluj, Romania. This comes after only three months since the factory started the production, as the plant opened its doors at the beginning of the year, in February.

For the moment, the Cluj factory makes Nokia cell phones for the European market and it mainly roles-out entry-level devices. The plant has around 700 employees, but when it reaches the full production capacity (at the end of 2009), it is estimated that no less than 3,500 people will work there.

Talking about the 1 million mark announced today, John Guerry, Director of the Cluj Factory, said: "This number represents a great success for us and it should be a pride for all those who sustained us since the debut of our operations in Cluj. The beginning of production in Romania was a fruitful one, and Nokia's clients from all over Europe are satisfied. We've managed to recruit dedicated and dynamic employees and I'm sure that, thanks to this wonderful team, the Cluj factory will become a model of performance when it comes to product quality."

The Cluj factory is the 11th one from all the factories that Nokia has around the world and its construction was first announced back in March 2007. The decision to build a facility in Romania was taken by the Finnish company mainly due to the low production costs found here. This led to the closing of Nokia's plant from Bochum, Germany, which should be completed in June.

Nokia invested until now more than 60 million USD into the Cluj factory, but the giant mobile manufacturer will surely recover the investment in a short time, once the facility reaches full production capacity and starts making more handsets.