The British relocate tire production with the purchase of Camac. They will invest 20 million in Santo Tirso – Industry

The British group SPC, the main European manufacturer of rubber compounds, chose Portugal to implement a strategic project that aims to reinforce its position in the competitive European high-performance tire market.

“The project envisages the acquisition of assets from Avon Tires Motorsport, currently owned by the Goodyear group, transferring production from the United Kingdom to Portugal, starting to sell through a new brand, Nova Tires”, reveals Banco Português de Fomento (BPF ), this Thursday, May 9, in a statement.

At stake is a project budgeted at 20 million euros, with the BPF announcing the contracting of an investment operation in Nova Motorsports, SA (formerly Turbalvoroço), the vehicle created by the British group for the acquisition of Avon Tires assets and, also, for the purchase of CNB/Camac – Companhia Nacional de Borrachas, which was until now the only national manufacturer of Portuguese capital.

“This investment, worth a total of 19.995 million euros, falls within the scope of the Deal-by-Deal Co-investment Program of the Capitalization and Resilience Fund (FdCR). Of the amount financed, 9.99 million are invested by the FdCR and 10.005 million by the co-investor SPC JEVSA, SLU, a subsidiary of the SPC Group, through the payment of share capital and the issuance of convertible bonds by both investors”, explains the BPF.

Nova Motorsports will be dedicated to the production and marketing of products derived from natural and synthetic rubber for the high-performance motorsports tire industry.

In the case of Camac, highlights the BPF, Nova Motorsports’ investment will allow the company to carry out a “turnaround” process based in Santo Tirso, which “aims to expand its industrial capacity and guide production towards differentiated products with greater added value, consolidating the technical know-how necessary to compete globally and strengthen Nova Motorsports’ presence in international motorsport.”

This project, “in addition to generating jobs and promoting regional development, also reinforces Nova Motorsports’ commitment to the introduction of technological innovations that aim to contribute to the alignment of industrial production with environmentally responsible practices”, highlights the BPF.

Without detailing the number of jobs that will be created with this project, the BPF emphasizes that “this FdCR investment not only attracts foreign capital directly to Portugal, but also guarantees entirely national production, thus contributing to the creation of jobs and development local”.

“We chose Portugal to establish a global company manufacturing tires for motor sports thanks to the agreement reached with Banco de Fomento, which strongly supported us in the acquisition of the company Camac, a tire factory, and the relocation of the different machines and equipment from the United Kingdom. tools”, say Paul Hallas, CEO of SPC, and Ramon Puente, promoter of the Nova Motorsports project and former CEO of Racing Motorbike Company.

Ana Carvalho, CEO of BPF, considers that “this investment represents an important support to the national industrial sector, by boosting the restructuring and revitalization of a company in the North region, through the attraction of foreign investment to which the Capitalization Fund and Resilience”

The operation falls within Window C of the program, which is intended for fund investments with an amount equal to or greater than two million euros and was subject to prior consultation by the FdCR’s Technical Investment Committee, explains the BPF.