In early June Laurent Burelle, CEO of the French automotive supplier, Plastic Omnium (Levallois; www.plasticomnium.com), laid the cornerstone for "Alphatech" in Venette, outside of Paris.

Alphatech is the new international research and development centre for the company's subsidiary, Inergy Automotive Systems (Paris / France; www.inergyautomotive.com), a supplier of fuel and emission controls systems. The new facility will include a new pilot shop which allows the company to directly test new products and systems before launching production at the company's various global sites.

The 23,000 m² facility is scheduled to be opened in September 2014 and is located close to the subsidiary's plant. According to a media release, Plastic Omnium has invested EUR 60m in the facility which will be the home of 450 employees currently working at Venette and Laval in central France as well as teams from another site in Brussels, Belgium. The new centre is also not far from the Paris airport, Roissy-Charles de Gaulle.

This is the company's second automotive technology R&D centre, with the other, Sigmatech, located in Lyon and which focuses on developments for the automotive components industry.