Dipl.-Kfm. Bernard Krone and Dr. Jürgen Föhrenbach turned the first sod for the new Krone Doğuş factory in Tire near Izmir, Turkey, together with Aclan Acar, the Chairman of Doğuş Otomotiv.
The new plant for semitrailers will open in the fall of 2009. The annual capacity of the plant amounts to 10,000 units; the investment volume to $55 million.
At first, about 3,000 trailers per year will be built, to be sold on the Turkish market and in Turkey's neighbouring countries.
In November 2007, Krone and the Turkish company Doğuş Otomotiv had signed a corresponding joint venture contract, where Krone has a share of 51 percent, Doğuş Otomotiv 49 percent.
After the ground-breaking ceremony, Bernard Krone emphasized that building a production plant in Turkey was a strategically important and appropriate step, particularly as the forecasts of the European Union assume a 40% increase in freight traffic until 2025. And most of it - so the forecasts say - will have to be transported on the roads within the continent.