A 75-Year-Old Munich Group That Supplies Nvidia and Apple Will Build a €53 Million Data-Centre Components Plant in Figueira da Foz
Hennig, a 75-year-old Munich manufacturer that supplies Nvidia and Apple, will build a €53 million plant for data-centre and energy components in Figueira da Foz, creating 450 jobs by 2028. The deal, backed by €7.7 million in state support via AICEP, targets €500 million in turnover.
A German industrial group that most consumers have never heard of, but whose components sit inside some of the world's most advanced computing, is coming to the central Portuguese coast. Hennig, a 75-year-old family manufacturer founded in Munich, will build a €53 million plant in Figueira da Foz that is expected to create 450 jobs.
The company makes precision components for data-centre infrastructure and energy systems, and counts chipmaker Nvidia and Apple among its customers — a supply-chain position that ties the investment directly to the global build-out of artificial-intelligence computing. The deal was sealed through an investment contract with AICEP (Agência para o Investimento e Comércio Externo de Portugal), the state agency for investment and foreign trade, which is backing the project with more than €7.7 million in public support.
A 35,000-square-metre bet on the coast
The main factory will rise on 35,000 square metres in the Pincho industrial zone of Figueira da Foz, a port city at the mouth of the Mondego river in the Coimbra district. Production is scheduled to begin in January 2028. Of the 450 planned jobs, around 400 will be at the Pincho site, with a further 50 at a support unit in nearby Santana, where Hennig is already renting space to train staff roughly 18 months ahead of the launch. The group currently employs 17 people in Portugal.
Hennig projects turnover of about €500 million in Portugal within five years of the plant opening, with between 60% and 70% of output destined for export.
Why Portugal
Chief executive Robert Schwaiger tied the choice to the economics of the AI era, saying "Portugal is the favourite for larger data centres because of green energy and Atlantic logistics opportunities" — a nod to the country's high share of renewable electricity and its position as a landing point for transatlantic connectivity.
The investment lands amid a steady run of foreign manufacturers picking Portuguese sites, drawn by relatively low costs within the euro zone, a skilled engineering workforce and access to the EU single market. Recent months have brought announcements from other German and international groups committing to factories across the north and centre of the country, several of them, like Hennig's, tied to industrial and technology supply chains rather than traditional low-wage assembly.
For Figueira da Foz — better known to Portuguese holidaymakers for its wide Atlantic beach than for high-tech manufacturing — the project promises a substantial injection of skilled employment in a region that has struggled to hold on to younger workers. The test now is delivery: turning a signed contract and a plot in an industrial park into a working plant, and 17 employees into 450, on the 2028 timetable Hennig has set itself.
