Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has opened Volvo Group Australia’s new $30 million national headquarters at Wacol on August 22.
The opening signals the next chapter in Volvo Group’s 46-year Queensland-based success story.
Palaszczuk was joined by AB Volvo chief executive officer and president Martin Lundstedt and Volvo Group Australia chief executive officer and president Peter Voorhoeve in unveiling the development at the Metroplex Westgate business park, close to the company’s existing assembly plant.
“Queensland is proud of its long association with Volvo Group Australia, which has manufactured more than 60,000 trucks for the Australian market at its Wacol factory since 1972,” Palaszczuk says.
“The company is our nation’s only truck manufacturer to be awarded ‘Australia Made’ certification and holds an impressive 27.4% share of the heavy-duty truck market.
“Its new headquarters and dealership, training facilities and factory expansion are proof Queensland’s economy is going strong, our construction and manufacturing industries are powering ahead, and ours is the best state in Australia in which to do business.”
Palaszczuk says more than 300 jobs were created during construction of the new headquarters and around 195 Queenslanders will now work there, along with 530 at the nearby factory in Wacol.
She’s thrilled that Volvo, the global inventor of the three-point seat belt which has saved more than a million lives, is now testing its heavy vehicle innovations on Queensland roads.
“Volvo knows if its new truck prototypes can withstand 50-degree Outback heat, a kangaroo darting out onto the road, and very long stretches between fuel stops, they will work anywhere,” Palaszczuk says.
“We are the proud to be home to this remarkable ‘Australia made’ success story, conceived in Sweden but built right here in Queensland.”
