ABB Bulgaria EOOD has been awarded Bulgarian Building of the Year 2013.

The building was chosen because of its high quality, energy efficiency and sustainability characteristics.

ABB Bulgaria EOOD received the award for Bulgarian Building of the Year 2013 by 'The City Media Group' for its newest industrial building in the town of Rakovski Thursday December 12.

The official ground breaking ceremony was held in December 2012. The industrial building in Rakovski is the second significant ABB Group's investment in the town. The site covers a total area of 15 000 square meters and the plant will function as ABB's internal supplier once production starts in late January 2014. When fully completed, it is expected to employ about 600 people.

The award winners are the building owner ABB, the designer Lindner Immobilien Management EOOD and the construction company Sienit Ltd.

'We are honored to receive this award as a high recognition of our new investment in Rakovski, the result of which is the rapid construction of this high quality building, owing to the positive atmosphere and cooperation in Bulgaria,' said Ekkehard Neureither, ABB Country Manager for Bulgaria at the awards ceremony Thursday.

The main criteria for the selection of ABB's building concern the surrounding infrastructure, energy efficiency, sustainability, environmental characteristics, originality, transport accessibility, and the architecture and execution quality.

The national contest Building of the Year organized annually by 'The City Media Group' is the most prestigious event in Bulgaria, which reviews the trends in investment projects, construction and architecture, and recognizes the best achievements of the year. The contest was founded 12 years ago; the winners are selected by professional organizations representatives, specialists and businessmen.

ABB EOOD operates in Bulgaria through a company with a head office in Sofia, as well as offices and branches at five other locations. ABB production units for low voltage products, for high voltage products and transformers, and for low and medium voltage products are located respectively in Petrich, Sevlievo and Rakovski. The company has a turbochargers service center in Varna, as well as an accounting and human resources center in Rakovski. ABB has more than 1600 employees in Bulgaria.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a global leader in power and automation technologies that enable public and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering negative environmental impact. The ABB company operates in approximately 100 countries and employs 150 000 people.