The manager of Dundee’s Michelin factory said more jobs will come to the plant if a major extension is approved by the city council.
John Reid was speaking on the tyre manufacturer’s application for a significant modernisation of its Baldovie site to secure its long-term future.
The company proposes to erect 20,000m2 storage/process, 2,000m2 production and 550m2 office extensions to the south and west of the existing building.
There would be associated access and loading areas and a new security fence.
There would also be pump house/tanks all with landscaping works; excavation and filling works north and west of an existing building for a flood storage area.
Michelin put its plans on public display in December as part of the pre-planning application consultation process to allow the public and other stakeholders to give their views.
Mr Reid said: “We’re confident that jobs will be created at Michelin Dundee if development goes ahead, but that depends on us receiving planning permission and securing funding.
“It’s impossible to speculate about the potential number of jobs involved at the moment because that would be determined by the exact nature and scope of the project.
“We are constantly looking at ways of improving our competitiveness, which highlights our commitment to the Dundee area.
“We have been making tyres in the city since 1972, and securing this planning permission and funding would help secure our presence here for many years to come.”
Michelin is one of Dundee’s biggest manufacturing employers, with a workforce of more than 700, and has emerged from some difficult times.
The plant had been earmarked for closure but was granted a reprieve by the French company’s executive board.
It went on to become one of the global tyre giant’s most efficient facilities after an operational overhaul, and now has an annual output of around seven million car tyres.
Its future was boosted by the creation of two giant wind turbines to generate electricity for the plant and slash its energy costs in a move that improved its profitability and secured its existence.
The turbines were installed in 2006 and, by generating more than 7m units (kWh) of electricity, they save about 7,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
The annual output is equivalent to that which is required to power more than 1,500 homes, drive an electric car around the equator more than 1,000 times, brew more than 352,062,678 cups of tea, power an energy-saving light bulb for over 73,000 years or keep an iPad going for 586,771 years.
Prospects were further raised when three years ago Michelin Dundee received a multi-million-pound cash injection to establish a new production line for the company’s flagship environmentally-friendly low-rolling-resistance tyres.
The company is not commenting on timescales for the new development, job creation prospects or the value of the potential investment in the site.