Sealed for success Federal-Mogul Hungary plays an important role in the global operations of the American Federal-Mogul Corporation. Its factory in Kunsziget supplies prominent car manufacturers and auto component producers in central and eastern Europe, manufacturing award-winning products. Edina Beale reports.
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ounded in 1899 in Detroit, Federal-Mogul Corporation today supplies the world’s biggest car manufacturers and operates in 36 countries. The company operates two business divisions: Federal-Mogul Powertrain focuses on original equipment powertrain products for automotive, heavy-duty and industrial applications; Federal-Mogul Motorparts sells and distributes a broad portfolio of products in the global vehicle aftermarket, while also serving original equipment (OE/OES) manufacturers with vehicle products including brake friction, chassis, wipers and other components.
Kunsziget factory Federal-Mogul’s global vehicle aftermarket division has had an official sales department in Hungary since 2008 and has owned the Kunsziget factory, Federal-Mogul Hungary Kft, since 1999. The factory in Kunsziget was set up in 1996 by the German company Glöckler, which had its main manufacturing in Bretten, Germany and transferred some of its production to Hungary. When Federal-Mogul acquired Glöckler in 1999, it acquired the Hungarian operation too. In 2001 Federal-Mogul closed one of its locations in Cardiff, South Wales and transferred that facility’s production of dynamic seals and valve stem seals to Kunsziget. In 2003 a new purpose-built facility was constructed on the site and all of the manual labour production work at the Bretten facility was moved across. In 2004 the new facility enabled the transfer of wiper blade assembly 100 Industry Europe
work from other locations in Europe across to Hungary, so that FederalMogul could once again benefit from the location of the site and the low-cost labour. Essentially Federal-Mogul Hungary produces four main products – static cold gaskets, dynamic seals, vale stem seals and wiper blades. The company’s main brands, which include Champion, Moog, Ferodo, Beral, Payen, Goetze, Nural, AE, Glyco and FP-diesel, are well known names across Europe; it supplies autoparts to 98.5 per cent of European vehicles. Products manufactured at Kunsziget are delivered direct to the customer on a just-in-time basis, whether engine builders or automotive assembly plants. The nearest customer is Audi’s engine plant 20km away in Győr, but the company supplies many other prominent automotive companies including BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler, as well as autopart manufacturers including Continental and Bosch.
New parts distribution facility Recently Federal-Mogul’s aftermarket division, Federal-Mogul Motorparts, has signed a contract with Kuehne + Nagel who will run a newly built automotive service parts distribution facility near Budapest, Hungary. The parts distribution facility (PDC), which is located in Páty, will supply service outlets in southern, eastern and central Europe in conjunction with Federal-Mogul’s distribution centre in Willebroek, Belgium. The Páty facility will also serve markets in Africa and those in adjacent
