Lenovo recently announced it will open two new, state-of-the-art manufacturing plants and fulfillment operations centers in Monterrey, Mexico and Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, India. Each of the facilities will support regional customer requirements, including product assembly and configuration, distribution services and logistics, to meet the need for Lenovo products in these markets.

The Monterrey facility, which will be 260,000 square feet, will have a production capacity of five million PCs when it becomes operational in mid-2008, employing about 750 workers. The plant will supply PCs to customers throughout the Western Hemisphere and represents Lenovo's largest manufacturing investment to date outside of China.

The Baddi plant will be the first to go online, with some limited production capacity available as soon as September to serve the growing India market. With an annual capacity of 2 million units, the plant initially will measure 130,000 square feet and employ 350 people.

The new plants will enable Lenovo to significantly increase global production capacity of Think-branded and Lenovo-branded PCs.

“These plants are an investment in Lenovo's future that leverages our world-class manufacturing base in China and extends it globally to satisfy demand for Lenovo products in vital economic opportunity areas,” said Gerry P. Smith, senior vice president of Lenovo's Global Supply Chain. “This announcement, together with the new facilities we recently announced in Shanghai, China, and North Carolina, will help us to improve our competitiveness and cost structure, as well as accelerate our ability to reach new markets and buyer segments.”

Smith said the company is actively scouting sites locations in Central and Eastern Europe, and he anticipates shortly announcing a similar type of installation in the near future.

Lenovo currently has manufacturing facilities in Beijing, Huiyang, Shanghai and Shenzhen in China; Pondicherry, India; and a new fulfillment center in Whitsett, N.C., announced last month.

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