7 minute read
New beginnings Letrika
LEADING IN TAIL LIGHTING
Auto rear light specialist odelo is looking forward to new opportunities now that it is part of a major Turkish group.
Odelo develops and produces complex tail light systems and LEDs for the automotive industry. The company is the technology leader in auto tail lights thanks to its strength in innovation and its use of the most up-to-date technologies. In fact, odelo developed and produced the world’s first all-LED tail light system in 1998 and today its engineers continue to develop new products and technologies for the future requirements of the automotive industry.
Odelo GmbH was established as a company as recently as 2008 when the tail light unit of the Schefenacker Group was separated from the rest of the business. Schefenacker itself was founded in Esslingen, in southern Germany, in 1935 to produce car interior lights and expanded to include exterior mirrors, tail lights and LED tail light systems. Today odelo employs 1600 people at five locations in Germany and Slovenia.
New ownership
In 2011 a new chapter opened in the history of odelo when it was acquired by the Istanbulbased Bayraktarlar Holding, an international trading conglomerate with extensive activities in Turkey. The Turkish company was founded in 1935 by Mehmet Bayraktar and entered the automotive market in 1979 as a supplier to the local automotive industry under its Farba brand. It has a successful track record in developing a national presence in the Turkish automotive lighting business.
Bayraktarlar saw the acquisition of odelo as an ideal opportunity to expand its international business and strengthen its market position in the automotive supplier industry in Europe. Ahment Bayraktar, Vice President of Bayraktarlar Holding, said when the acquisition was announced, “odelo’s high quality and innovative product portfolio, its strong technology base and extensive client relations are a perfect match for our existing automotive business. We will be working as partners to ensure that this acquisition will create value for our clients worldwide. He also made it clear that Bayraktarlar planned to invest in new technology at odelo. “Innovation is the key to future market success and competitiveness in the automotive supply industry. Through knowledge sharing and operational improvements, Bayraktarlar plans to even further enhance odelo’d competitiveness.”
Loyal customers
Tail lights are an important contributor to the overall appearance of a vehicle – they have a significant aesthetic role to play as well as making driving safer. Indeed the complexity of modern tail lights is a reflection of the high level of expectations they have to meet regarding their design, quality and functionality. Odelo points out that only a company that has always had the highest expectations for its products’ quality and technology can develop and produce such technologically sophisticated components to meet the ever more complex demands of its customers.
Odelo claims that it is because its products so clearly stand apart from those of its competitors that its clients remain so loyal. The company delivers most of its products to the major German auto makers, including Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Opel, Porsche and Volkswagen. Overall it has a 20 per cent share of the market in Germany.
Today the headquarters of odelo Deutschland are in Geislingen, in southern Germany, but its LED production is located at a dedicated plant in Kamp-Lintfort, in north west Germany. odelo LED specialises in the development and production of LEDs for automotive applications, with each product tailored to the technical and quality requirements of individual clients. The unique production method at the plant makes possible the maximum flexibility in the optical and geometric design of the LEDs so that it can produce tail light modules that stand out as innovative and unique.
Yet at the same time this innovative production technology can be used to make LEDs with standard emission properties. The in-depth expertise at the Kamp-Lintfort plant also enables it to make most of the actual LEDs for odelo signal lights.
Quality for the aftermarket
ULO is a subsidiary of the odelo group that supplies spare parts to the independent aftermarket. The head and rear lights, door mirrors and daytime running lights that are distributed under the ULO brand are original parts and therefore perfect in terms of quality and precision fit and fulfil entirely the high stadards for original parts set by the auto industry.
At the ULO plant in Geislingen experts are employed for each country in which ULO parts are distributed. They are totally familiar with the characteristics of their national markets and maintain close personal contect with ULO wholesalers throughout Europe. ULO’s product range alos includes universal parts for commercial vehicles.
Lean production rewarded
In 2005 odelo built a new lighting plant in Slovenia. In July 2013 this subsidiary, odelo Slovenija, received the prestigious Automo-
tive Lean Production Award in the category ‘International SME’ after a study carried out by the magazine Automobil Produktion in cooperation with the Munich business consultancy Agamus Consult.
Ever since the company was founded lean culture has been an inherent part of the plant philosophy at odelo Slovenija. Managing director and CEO of the odelo group Klaus Holeczek explained that the plant’s motivated employees, a culture open to mistakes and innovation, flexibility and the full support of the plant’s management were just as important as the lean alignment of the plant’s processes. He pointed out that the importance of lean thinking in the plant had also been underlined by the establishing of an internal lean promotion team which was responsible for the continuous monitoring of all the processes at the plant and their further development in terms of the the ‘Lean Spirit’.
“Close cooperation on product and process development between Slovenia and Germany has also been crucial in ensuring the high degree of maturity of projects being launched at our Slovenia plant,” said Mr Holeczek. “There is no doubt that the team from Germany has contributed significantly to the success of odelo Slovenija.” n
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NEW BEGINNINGS
Slovenian-based automotive parts manufacturer Letrika d.d. has undergone some major changes in recent years, including a re-branding and takeover by the German Mahle Group. Industry Europe looks at the background behind the company and its activities.
Since Industry Europe last interviewed Iskra Autoelektrika d.d. in 2010 some major changes have taken place. One of the biggest of these was its 2012 change in name to Letrika d.d. which gave the group an entirely new brand identity.
The history of Letrika goes back to 1960 when its predecessor Iskra Avtoelectrika was established as a producer of automotive electric parts. The ensuing years saw rapid growth, and today the company is a well-known expert in all areas of the automotive parts business, from research and development to production and sales.
Today the group has more than 2600 employees with manufacturing plants and production companies operating worldwide, including a number of locations in what it sees at the most important markets for its automotive products.
From its headquarters in Slovenia, Letrika presides over a global network of production companies in Slovenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil and China. In addition to these are its trading companies in France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the USA.
Continued investment is a major component of the group’s strategy for growth. In May this year (2014) its subsidiary Letrika Komen d.o.o. – a producer of aluminium castings using die cast technology – opened a new die cast production hall covering an area of 1000m2. This investment, which has already greatly improved productivity, amounted to some 2 million euros.
Mahle takeover
Another important development took place this year, when the Germany-based Mahle Group signed an agreement for the acquisition of the majority shares in Letrika d.d. Mahle is a global giant in the automotive and
