The provisional consolidated sales of the Hella Group rose some 16% to more than DEM 3.6m over the 1997/98 financial year (31.5.). Of this, 40% was achieved outside of Germany. The German parent company, Hella KG Hueck & Co (D-59552 Lippstadt), increased its sales by 12.3% to DEM 2.37 bn. In the Hella Group, including the non-consolidated companies, sales rose 20.2% to about DEM 4.3 bn. Hella is countering the “unrelenting pressure on prices for equipment delivered directly to automotive manufacturers” with the constant improvement of sequences and cost structures within the company. In the financial year just ended, a comprehensive programme was launched to tap the cost-saving potential that had been pinpointed.

The Hella Group payroll increased by 1295 to 22,090. This rise in sales and staff is due to the opening of new production plants in England and Mexico and to the higher capacity utilisation of factories in Europe and the NAFTA countries.

The new lighting engineering and electronics equipment for the automotive industry, which Hella started making during the 1997/98 financial year just ended, includes headlamps for the new Opel Astra, produced 100% by Hella at three Group locations, and new tail lights for the Volvo S80 and Jaguar XJ8. Different tail light prototypes were developed, including ones with LED technology based on the Audi A6 tail lamp. In the electronics field, development work continued on different pioneering sensors, including sensors for the automatic detection and clearing of steamed-up windows and sensors for the automatic adjustment of headlamp beams. Existing assembly lines were extended, and new ones set up. As a system supplier, Hella took up production of the front end for the VW New Beetle in Puebla / Mexico.

READER SERVICE: Company portrait brochure “Hella Today, 1997/98” (with initial information from the Annual Report), German: PIE-No. 42990.