The Franco-German group is a leading automotive supplier of engine and battery cooling solutions as well as turbocharger systems. BAVARIA Industries Group took over the company, whose turnover was around EUR 130 million at the time, from the Swedish Trelleborg Group in 2010.
Initial situation
As a carve-out, the company was a hotchpotch of production sites, shared operating sites and various technical centres scattered throughout the whole of Europe. There were no company headquarters in the proper sense or any standardised IT infrastructure as it was fully integrated into the general automotive division at Trelleborg. Individual plants were showing significant losses and the group was not even generating enough from its operations to cover depreciation.
Key measures following the takeover
The newly appointed management first introduced an SAP system throughout the company with the support of BAVARIA’s management. All processes were streamlined and the BAVARIA operating system introduced in order to implement potential improvements. At the same time, an extensive investment programme was initiated and the company gradually globalised. A new Asian production site opened and was followed by further sites in Mexico and China. Plant closures were not necessary as the loss-makers’ capacity was utilised better thanks to additional production orders and the losses stemmed through improvement measures.
Further development
Process costs were reduced significantly due to the introduction of the new Creatube production process. At the same time, the company was able to benefit substantially from the trend towards electromobility thanks to product innovations in the area of battery cooling. Profitability subsequently rose well into the double-digit range and turnover doubled during its seven years under BAVARIA’s ownership. In 2017, we sold the company to the Chinese Zhongding Group, which promised the company even more support with its further development in the area of sensor technology and battery cooling.