The French company Montupet, in May 2008, announced it was going to build a factory, in Bunardzik, for the production of car parts, worth 60 million euros. The Prime Minister at the time, Nikola Gruevski and the CEO of Montupet Marc Majus in Longeville, France signed a Memorandum for cooperation, with which they promised to the Macedonian public the opening of 500 new jobs.
Although it was advertised as one of the largest greenfield investments in Macedonia, to date the company has not implemented its plan.
"The first phase of the project will employ 500 people, and in three to four years this figure will be doubled. The investment will be doubled," said Gruevski after signing the document. He added that other Macedonian companies will also have indirect benefits from this investment.
He noted that from the export of products per year, the company will invest 70-100 million euros and in five years the investment will provide an additional value of 200 million euros in Macedonia.
The Montupet company said the good economic conditions, tax deductions and professional staff are the key reasons why they decided to invest in Macedonia.
"The construction of the factory should be completed by 2009, after which we will begin with the production of prototypes. Starting from 2010, we will begin with the commercial sales of car parts," said Majus.
The factory, located in Bunardzik, was supposed to have the latest technologies, which would produce cylinders for the engines of Ford vehicles, which were intended for the German, British and other markets.
The negotiations with Montupet began in 2007 and were led by the competent minister, Vele Samak.
Montupet was established in 1894 and since 1966 it has been listed in the Paris Stock Exchange. Aside from France, it has factories in Spain, USA, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Britain, Ireland and Mexico.
Although Macedonia was a safe destination in their investment plan, further on they put the investment on hold due to the economic crisis, as reported by the Director of the Agency for Foreign Investments, Viktor Mizo.
In May 2009, he stated that the company is facing internal problems, a weak demand, which is why they are laying off workers and why it would be very difficult for them to decide to invest in new production, reported Utrinski Vesnik.
In 2013, media reported that Montupet decided to expand its business in Bulgaria where they were to build three production plants with an investment worth 100 million euros.