Car components supplier Grupo Antolin (Burgos / Spain; www.grupoantolin.com) has put its expanded and modernised interior lighting plant in Bamberg / Germany onstream. As part of the extension, the facility includes a technology centre that is to concentrate on the development of new possibilities for ambient lighting together with the relevant electronics. The EUR 11.5m investment entails 80 new jobs at the pilot plant. A total of 400 people are currently employed here.

Antolin is evidently planning an expansion of its lighting division, which, following the takeover of Magna’s (Aurora, Ontario / Canada; www.magna.com) interiors business – see Plasteurope.com of 03.09.2015 – is now the smallest division with turnover of around EUR 350m. Its EBITDA margin of 17.8% (EUR 62m), however, is by far the highest.

The Spanish company has also suffered from the slowdown of the automotive industry. EBITDA fell to EUR 356m after reaching EUR 465m in 2017. Sales increased only marginally to EUR 5.4 bn, but adjusted for currency, there was a 3.2% increase over the previous year.

The Overheads division, with roof linings, sun visors and related products, is still the largest with turnover of nearly EUR 2.1 bn. The Doors division posted sales in 2018 of nearly EUR 1.9 bn, while Cockpits and Consoles recorded sales of EUR 1.1 bn. Whereas EBITDA of nearly all the divisions improved slightly, that of Overheads almost halved to just EUR 103m. The reason was the closure of the plant for Daimler in Rastatt / Germany and generally weak performance of production in Europe and, to a certain extent, the US. Antolin is currently growing fastest in Asia, where a growth of 21% was achieved in 2018 despite the decline of car production in China. Here, the company is looking to additionally score with the lighting production facility opened in 2018 in Guangzhou, Guangdong / China.

In the first two months of 2019, the problematic situation in the car production sector was still very much in evidence. Sales fell 2% to EUR 803.7m compared with the same period of 2018. For the full-year 2019, Antolin expects stable turnover and an average EBITDA margin of 8%, which would be a good percentage point more than in 2018.