Press Release

Hella to become exclusive sales partner for Visteon Aftermarket Europe for lighting

Hella will take over the exclusive sales of lighting equipment for Visteon's European aftermarket business in Kerpen, Germany. Behr Hella Service will become sales partner for Visteon products for vehicle air conditioning and engine cooling.

In the lighting product group, Hella is to take over around 250 headlamps and fog lamps as well as combination rear lamps and direction indicators in a first step. In addition, the product range is to be supplemented step by step by further devices from Visteon's future original equipment range. In Europe, Visteon's OEM customers include Audi, Citroen, Ford, Land Rover, Opel, Peugeot, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen. The lighting products will be sold under the Hella brand.
In the thermal management product range, Behr Hella is taking over more than 300 Visteon products for engine cooling and vehicle air conditioning for vehicles from Ford, Volvo, Renault, Skoda and Fiat, for example. These products will be sold under the Behr Hella Service brand. Hella and Behr founded this joint venture in 2005 for the joint processing of the independent parts market for thermal management for passenger cars and commercial vehicles.
"Through this exclusive sales partnership we are strengthening our already important market position in the lighting and thermal management product segments, thus significantly increasing the attractiveness of our range of spares and wearing parts for the aftermarket and garages in Europe," said Martin Herbst, CEO Aftermarket & Special OE at Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., when the cooperation was announced.

About the companies:
Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., Lippstadt: The automotive parts supplier develops and manufacturers components and systems for lighting technology and electronics for the automotive industry, and is the world's No. 2 trade organisation for vehicle parts and accessories, with its own sales companies and partners in more than 100 countries. The turnover of the Hella Group is around 3.7 billion euros. Hella is one of the Top 50 automotive parts suppliers in the world, and one of the 100 largest German industrial companies. More than 25,000 people work in 70 manufacturing facilities, production subsidiaries and joint ventures all over the world. Almost 3,000 engineers and technicians work in research and development throughout the company group. Customers include all leading vehicle and system manufacturers as well as the automotive parts aftermarket.

Behr Hella Service GmbH: The joint venture company between the automotive parts supplier Behr (specialist for vehicle air conditioning and engine cooling) and Hella (specialist for components and systems for lighting technology and electronics) serves the global independent parts aftermarket for vehicle air conditioning and engine cooling together. The joint venture combines the Behr Service activities on the independent parts aftermarket and the air conditioning business of the Hella aftermarket organisation. Behr and Hella each hold 50 % of the shares in the joint venture. The combination of Hella's global sales organisation with Behr's product know-how and the linking of activities in the field of vehicle air conditioning and engine cooling for the parts business is a consistent further development of previous cooperation between Behr and Hella in the field of climate control and front-end modules..

Visteon Corporation is one of the world's leading suppliers to the automotive industry. The company's core competences include the development and production of innovative products in the segments vehicle air conditioning, interior, electronics and lighting for original equipment. In addition, Visteon is a supplier to the spare parts and accessory markets. With corporation headquarters in Van Buren Township (Michigan/USA), Shanghai (China) and Kerpen (Germany), Visteon has a world-wide presence, and has more than 170 branches in 26 countries with around 46,000 employees.