Tyre manufacturer Michelin has confirmed it is exploring plans to modernise its Dundee factory in order to secure its long-term future.
The firm has lodged a pre-planning application with Dundee City Council outlining two new development zones at its sprawling Baldovie site.
The company stressed yesterday that the plans which envisage a new southern manufacturing and tyre storage wing to the factory and major earthworks to create a flood storage area on the western boundary are at an early stage.
There was no comment forthcoming on development timescales, job creation prospects or the value of the potential investment in the site, and detailed proposals for the site are not expected to emerge until the first quarter of next year.
However, factory manager John Reid said he was positive about the future of the 42-year-old plant, which is one of Dundee’s major employers with around 800 staff.
The next stage of the process will see Michelin move into a 12-week consultation period in which upgrading options for the site will be explored. A public exhibition of the proposals is scheduled to take place at the Michelin Training Centre over two days in early December.
“We continually review our strategies for future competitiveness,” Mr Reid said.
“We have been talking to our factory team about where we can make improvements, and this application is part of that process.
“The pre-planning application signals the start of consultations with local stakeholders as part of a wider feasibility study for a number of investment ideas.
“The application is for building extensions to manufacture and store tyres.
“There is no investment agreed to make this happen, but as part of our feasibility study we are considering the implications of this opportunity.
“We remain positive about our prospects and we believe we have good ideas that will soon be able to form a new and positive strategy for the development of the Michelin Dundee factory.
“We hope to complete the feasibility studies in the next few months.”
Any new investment for Baldovie would have to be signed off by the company’s main board at Michelin’s headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand in France.
The facility had been earmarked for closure in the late 2000s but was granted a reprieve from the executive board and went on to become one of the global tyre giant’s most efficient facilities after an operational overhaul.
The site was also given a major boost three years ago when it received a multi- million-pound cash injection to establish a new production line for the company’s flagship environmentally-friendly low-rolling-resistance tyres.
Colin Coupar of Unite, the union representing staff at Baldovie, said it was too early to tell whether new jobs would result from the extension plans.
However, he said Michelin had invested significantly in increasing the workforce in recent years. “There were commitments made to investment plans for something like a five-year period,” Mr Coupar said.
“In the last couple of years since Michelin announced those plans, they’ve created about an extra 100 jobs.”