Novomatic has begun working on the building of a major extension to its factory in Austria. The group, based in the small town of Gumpoldskirchen, just south of Vienna, has broken ground on the project, which is due for completion in October of next year.

The building, 300m long by 50m wide and two-storied, will house research and development and some manufacturing processes will be transferred into it.

The R&D functions will continue to be supplemented by the activities of the group’s technical workshops in Poland and at Astra Games in the UK.

Novomatic employ 650 people at is Gumpoldskirchen plant and this number will rise by 150 as a consequence of the investment.

Regarding people employed, the Novomatic Group has this year passed the 10,000 mark in terms of staff numbers. The company now employs 10,400 staff, with 2,000 of them based in Austria. The group had a turnover of 2.1 billion euros at the end of December 2007, a sharp increase on the previous year’s 1.3 billion euros.