Avtotor
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| Public company | |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Kaliningrad, KGD, Russia |
| Products | Cars |
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Number of employees
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3,500 (2013) |
| Website | avtotor |
Avtotor (Russian: Автотор) is an automobile manufacturing company located in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. It was created in 1996, it was one of the largest producers and assemblers of cars by 2008, including brands like BMW, Chevrolet, Hummer, and Kia.
In 2006, it was ranked 69th in Forbes magazine's list of the 200 largest private companies in Russia. The company's revenue for 2011 was reported to be approximately 4 billion euros and it was said, in 2016, to employ 3,500.
Avtotor was founded in 1996 by a group of investors led by current principal owner and chairman of the board of directors Vladimir Shcherbakov, former Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the USSR, and Goskomtrud, the State Committee for Labour and Social Problems in the Soviet Union. A $130,000,000 assembly plant was built, originally planning to produce Nissan automobiles. The plant was installed in an unoccupied shipyard in Kaliningrad. The company's name is a portmanteau of "auto" and the German word "tor", meaning "gate". In 1997, the new plant began assembling Kia automobiles.
In the aftermath of the 1998 Russian financial crisis, the company found itself in a difficult financial position, as automobile sales dropped significantly. To mitigate the consequences of the crisis, the company secured a large contract with BMW and transitioned to contract assembly, sparing Avtotor the cost of buying components.
Later, the company began a partnership with General Motors, starting full-scale assembly on the Chevrolet Lacetti.
In 2012, Avtotor formed a partnership with Magna International, Canadian auto-parts company. Vladimir Shcherbakov released a statement that the Canadian government had pressured Magna International into ending the partnership. A spokesperson for Magna denied the allegations.
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