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History (1990): Hitachi Manufactures HDDs in France

3380 compatible drives and controllers to be assembled

This will be Hitachi’s first computer products facility in Europe, and at the same time, the only Winchester unit plant in France.

Inauguration
Hitachi Ardon

Initially, it will manufacture compatible IBM 3390 hard disk drives and controllers.

Hitachi already manufactured these DASDs in Odawara (Japan) and in Norman, OK.

As of April 1992, they will be produced in Ardon, close to Orléans, approximately 130km south of the French capital.

This was announced in Paris last November 8 by Yasuhiko Tani, president of Hitachi’s Data Systems Group.

The new company, set up by Hitachi, Ltd. will be established as Hitachi’s Computers Products (Europe) SA in February 1991 with a capital of FF100 million to be increased to FF174 million in 1993.

Construction of the plant is to begin in April 1991, and to be completed a year later in a floor space of 18,000 square meters at start to be enlarged progressively to a 728,500 square meter land area.

Total investment is estimated at FF300 million by 1994 including land, building, facilities, etc. 170 employees will be hired to begin, and 500 by 1994. Hitachi hopes that this new French subsidiary will be able to reach FF550 million sales in FY92 and approximately FF1,800 million in FY94.

First, 7390 disks and their 7989 controllers will be assembled in France, but a 60% European added value is expected starting 1995. The plant will also sell and repair these units.

But the Japanese company is expecting more from this facility.

Hitachi plans for the new company to play a pivot role in the development of its European electronics sector operations in coming years and has tentative plans for the new company to move into other product lines, including workstations and application programs, as well as into R&D.

Hitachi selected Europe, as it wanted a third worldwide computer site there, after Japan and USA. And of course, the Japanese, like many others, want to be in a good position in the EC market for late 1992.

When it came to the choice of the country, Hitachi already had plants in UK (TVs, VCRs, etc) and in Germany (TVs, VCRs, semiconductors) and nothing in France which is nevertheless Hitachi’s second country in terms of sales of computer system after USA, according to Bernard Rossignol, marketing manager for Hitachi Data Systems (Boulogne-Billancourt, France).

In this part of France, the Val de Loire, regional management is very active since several firms like Honda, Moriseki and NGK are already settled there.

Therefore, Hitachi will become the unique manufacturer of HDDs in France, including any type, since Bull stopped a few years ago and now all drives are imported in the country and there is no local manufacturing. Bull has just signed an agreement with IBM to supply 3390s. The only DASDs for mainframes manufactured in Europe are in Mainz (Germany) by IBM.

The DASDs manufactured in France should be for Hitachi’s European subsidiaries but also OEMs like Comparex and Olivetti.

Rossignol also said that, on September 30, 1990, there was a population of 1,525 Hitachi’s 3380 compatible drives amounting to 7,545GB in France.

Hitachi is the leader in the worldwide 3380/3390 PCM Winchester drive market in front of Fujitsu.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠35, published on December 1990.

Note: Hitachi closed this Ardon manufacturing plant in January 2017, employing 169 people at this time.

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