NEENAH, WI -- Plexus will invest up to $30 million to build a large manufacturing facility in a new industrial park in Oradea, Romania, the company disclosed today.

The new building will be located on approximately 22 acres of land in the Eurobusiness Industrial Park. Plexus plans to invest $25 million to $30 million to develop the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility of between 160,000 to 215,000 sq. ft. Construction is expected to begin in 2011, and Plexus already has begun hiring for the new plant.

Plexus, which already leases two smaller sites in Oradea, said those factories would be closed once the new plant comes online. "The new site will replace two small leased facilities," CFO Ginger Jones told CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY. "Those two [existing] facilities are about 2 km away from each other, which is not optimal."

Jones added that there are no plans to consolidate Plexus' other European operations, which include design and manufacturing sites in Scotland, into Romania once the new plant is complete.

In a statement, Steve Frisch, regional president - EMEA, said, "We believe that our investment in Oradea has provided our multinational customers with an optimal lower total-cost European solution, particularly for products with European end-markets. Our customers continue to show increased demand for services in this region since we commenced operations in February 2009 with a leased facility in Oradea. We are committed to the continued development of our presence in this region and believe it will enable us to deliver on our longer-term growth goals."

The new site will employ up to 500 workers, Frisch said, adding that hiring has begun. "We continue to recruit and hire staff, at all levels and for all functions. We anticipate that staffing levels may grow to 500 when the new facility is fully operational."

Jones told CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY that the Oradea sites build for a range of end-products sectors, primarily medical and commercial industrial.