£60m investment to transform Dundee's Michelin site into innovation centre
- Published
Michelin announced the plant would close by the middle of next year
Dundee's Michelin site has received a £60m funding commitment to turn the former plant into an innovation centre.
The new centre will focus on sustainable mobility, clean transport and low carbon energy.
Tyre manufacturer Michelin told the factory's workers last year that it would close the plant with the loss of all 845 jobs in 2020.
The Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP) will be created over the next decade.
The investment is supported by Michelin, Scottish Enterprise and Dundee City Council.
The new centre will include office space, with an "innovation hub" for collaborations between industry and academia.
A memorandum of understanding over the site's future was signed last year
A memorandum of understanding aimed at repurposing the site was signed last December.
More than 400 employees have found new jobs since Michelin announced the closure of the factory, which opened in 1971.
The Dundee site specialised in smaller tyres, and suffered because of a shift in the market towards low-cost products from Asia.
Finance Secretary Derek Mackay said the new centre would attract "companies, research institutions and a highly-skilled workforce".
He said: "We want Scotland to lead the way in developing and manufacturing the technologies of the future and MSIP will be vital in helping us achieve this."
Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc chief executive John Reid said: "A year ago, I wouldn't have believed we would have been able to make this much progress.
"We still have a long way to go but we should be encouraged by how things have progressed in the last year."