The last car produced by French auto making group PSA left the assembly line at Aulnay-sous-Bois, putting the lid on 40 years of varied business success at the location in the northeastern suburbs of Paris.

The company said the Citroen C3 would find a place of honor in the Conservative Citroen Brand Heritage Center.

Management added the site would continue making spare parts until 2014 while production of the Citroen C3 would be fully transferred to the Poissy plant west of Paris.

Ups and downs

The eventual closure of the Aulnay facility will come in line with a redundancy plan that was introduced in May 2013, marking the first shutdown of a French car plant in 20 years.

PSA said a total of 2,700 out of 3,000 workers would be redeployed by March 2014. But the company added it was also looking to help re-industrialize the Aulnay site, with the objective of attracting companies that offer jobs aligned with the skills of PSA employees.

Citroen inaugurated the site back in 1973. All in all, over 8.5 million units rolled off the assembly lines there.

Hit by sluggish demand in debt-stricken Europe, PSA saw its 2012 sales dip by 16.5 percent and suffered the largest annual net losses in its history.

hg/pfd (AFP, dpa)