Hella Lighting Plans Major Expansion in Guadalajara

GUADALAJARA, Mexico, Nov. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Hella Lighting plans to open a product development center and expand its manufacturing facilities in Guadalajara.

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The company's new 9,000-square-foot design and development center for lighting technology is expected to open in March of next year. Hella also is scheduled to complete a 15,000-square-foot expansion of its Guadalajara manufacturing complex next June for the production of automotive reflectors for customers based throughout the Americas.

Working within Hella's global product development network, the new development center will allow the company to work more closely with its customers in Mexico and elsewhere throughout the NAFTA region.  The center will employ more than 80 design and lighting specialists.  

Hella design teams at the development center will work directly with customers to define product requirements; to develop product designs and design options; to manage product testing, validation and reliability, and to assist in new-product manufacturing launches.

Initial programs at the development center will include work on simple and high-complexity head lamps, rear lamps and signal-function lamps for customers in the NAFTA region as well as elsewhere in South America. Although the center won't officially open until next spring, development teams in Guadalajara already are working on projects for a number of OEM customers.

Ignacio Moreno, a member of Hella Lighting's Executive Board and CEO for Hella Lighting North & South America said, "The new development center will better integrate product knowledge with our team in Mexico and throughout our established network of development centers throughout the world."

"With the integration of specialists in Mexico into our global product-development network knowledge transfer will occur more quickly and better support our customer commitment," Moreno pointed out.

The Hella executive explained that the new center in Mexico also will work closely with the company's other NAFTA-based product development group in suburban Detroit.  The Detroit center supplies application engineering and on-site support for many of the company's customers in the United States.

"We will have a number of job openings at our product development centers in both Guadalajara and Detroit," Moreno said. "We've seen an increasing interest in LED lighting technology, have received a number of new-business awards and also expect additional growth in the next several years."

The modern, high-technology reflector production unit in the Guadalajara will increase plant capacity.

A recent expansion of a second Hella lighting plant in Guadalajara provided a 30 percent increase in head lamp production capacity for North and South American-based automotive customers.

Moreno noted that production capacity at Hella's Guadalajara lighting complex is already fully booked for next year and the company is considering plans for an additional plant within the next several years. He added that as many as 700 new jobs could be created at Hella Lighting in Mexico by in 2013 or 2014.

Information about current and future job openings at Hella Lighting in Mexico is available by emailing Laura Itzel Diaz Escalante at [email protected]. She also can be reached by phone at +52 (33) 3668 4300 - extension 3121.

"Continuous growth potential exists in the North and South American regions," added Carlos Castrillo, managing director for Hella Lighting's operations in Guadalajara. "We anticipate an increasing amount of OEM vehicle development work to take place in Mexico and Brazil as well.

"Mexico has become an important manufacturing center not only for North America but also for Central and South America.  We undoubtedly will need to increase our production capacity to respond to future customer demand."

About Hella:  Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. develops and manufactures lighting and electronics components and systems for the automotive industry. Its joint venture companies also produce complete vehicle modules, air-conditioning systems and vehicle electric systems. In addition, Hella has one of the largest automotive aftermarket organizations in the world, with its own sales companies and partners in more than 100 countries.

Hella Group sales were $6.09 billion in fiscal year 2010-2011. Hella is one of the top 50 automotive parts suppliers in the world and one of the 100 largest industrial companies in Germany. Nearly 25,000 people work at 70 locations in more than 30 countries, including more than 3,800 research-and-development engineers and technicians. Additional information is available at www.hella.com.

SOURCE Hella Lighting