Hella to be around ‘for years to come’ says MD

Updated to clarify company ownership and business structure

Following the completion of the deal with Faurecia, where the latter acquired 80 percent of Hella’s shares, Hella UK’s MD has confirmed that both firms will as remain separate entities, with their own management and identities.

Neil Grant and the new pre-boxed exhaust product

READ: HELLA TO BE SOLD TO FAURECIA

READ: PEOPLE NEWS: NEIL GRANT IS NEW MD AT HELLA

READ: MOVERS: CHANGES AT HELLA AFTERMARKET

Explaining that Faurecia owns a lot, but not all, of Hella’s stock, UK Managing director Neil Grant explained that this is a ‘significant point’. “It means that [the holdings company] doesn’t have around 20 percent of the shares,” he said. “Therefore it isn’t just a simple case of becoming part of Faurecia, Hella remains a separate listed entity, both in the UK and globally, and we have our own governance structure and reporting lines”.

Faurecia has acquired 60 percent of Hella’s share pool from the Hueck family and 20 percent from the general shareholder pool,

While still separate entities, the structure of the organisations has been altered with the formation of both companies will work together on many projects. A holdings company, Forvia has been formed and departments within both companies have been reorganised. For example, Hella’s newly formed ‘Lifecycle Solutions’ business group, will be a combination of aftermarket and special applications business segments. Meanwhile, two other business groups have been created, Lighting and Electronics.

The first new aftermarket product line to be launched following the changes is set to be a range of replacement exhaust parts known as ‘Easy2Fit’ and, unusually for products in this category, be distributed in hard boxes.

“We’ll make some more announcements in due course as to where Forvia fits in terms of branding etc, but we will very much keep the Hella branding for years to come,” concluded Grant.