From The China Car Times

Greatwall's Bulgarian operation officially went online yesterday after a presentation by Greatwall Chairwoman, Wang Feng Ying, Chinese Ambassador to Bulgaria, Guo Ye Zhou, Bulgarian Prime Minister  Mr Borisov and the owner of Litex Motors and former wrestler, Grisha Ganchev.

Bulgaria is hardly famed for its automotive exploits, the country has not produced a car in over 20 years, the first true Bulgarian car, the Sofia, failed to pick up sales despite being a solid idea on paper, British auto company MG-Rover also tried the Bulgarian market with a local partner, but that too failed. The introduction of Great Wall into Bulgaria is a major coop for the country, although Bulgaria does not have a car manufacturing tradition it does have a very strong auto parts industry.

Great Wall's investment in the country comes via Litex Motors, the local partner to GWM, the CEO of of which is a retired wrestler who put the mat aside in a bid to build up the country's auto industry. Great Wall vehicles have been on sale in Eastern Europe and also Bulgaria for a number of years, but this is GWM's first foray into building vehicles in Europe, the cars will be sent over in kit form from GWM's facility in the port city of Tianjin and assembled at the new factory in Bahovitsa, a village in the suburbs of Lovech.

Litex Motors have not been slow about expanding in Bulgaria, the Great Wall brand already has 12 dealers in the country since the brands introduction in October 2011, and they are gunning for more expansion by the end of 2012.

The new Bulgarian factory is far from small, it covers 500,000 square meters according to a Great Wall press release and will be capable of pushing out 50,000 cars in its first phase. The Voleex C10 sedan will be the first model to be produced at the factory but the Wingle 5 truck, Voleex C20R hatchback and Haval H6 SUV are also in the pipeline. 120 workers are currently on the Bulgarian payroll but this number is likely to be expanded as fast as the dealership network figures over the next few months as more models are added to the production line.

Production is not likely to be limited to Bulgarian consumption, the factory is probably aiming to help satisfying the demand for low cost SUV's and trucks in neighboring eastern European markets.

Interestingly foreign media have been eager to label the Bulgarian plant as the first Chinese auto maker to set up shop in Europe, some journalists are forgetting that Chinese auto makers have been in Europe for quite some time already, Chang'an has a strong R&D facility in the UK, MG has a factory in the UK too, and Chery have had a CKD facility in Ukraine for a number of years.