REBO Lighting & Electronics

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REBO Lighting & Electronics GmbH
legal form GmbH
Seat Eisenach
management Richard Hübner
managing director
Number of employees 2019: approx. 400
sales 2019: approx. € 70 million
Branch Automotive supplier
Website www.rebo-group.de

The REBO Lighting & Electronics GmbH (until 2017 Truck-Lite Europe GmbH and by 2008 FER vehicle Elektrik GmbH ) is an automotive supplier and, with about 400 employees since 2017 to BOAO Group, based in Chongqing / China. The group of companies employs 5,500 people in 10 subsidiaries at 13 locations worldwide. There are 3 REBO locations. In Ann Arbor , Michigan / USA there is a development and production site for interior lights, various small lights and ambient lighting. At the Chinese location in Chongqing, circuit boards, cables and various indoor and outdoor lights are manufactured. The headquarters of the German location is in the Eisenach district of Stockhausen , where complex interior lighting systems, exterior lighting (e.g. brake lights), various small lights and ambient lighting are developed and manufactured.

REBO Lighting & Electronics GmbH building in Stockhausen

Products

The product range consists of lighting for motor vehicles. In the past, horns, sensors and cable harnesses were also manufactured in addition to lighting equipment , but these are no longer part of the product portfolio. In 1998 the company manufactured the first indicators, which were integrated in the exterior mirrors. In 2002, the company developed the world's first fluorescent license plate, which was first installed in the Volkswagen Phaeton luxury class model .

The current product portfolio includes the production of raised brake lights, interior lights (e.g. roof modules, make-up lights & trunk lights), mirror indicators and side marker lights, small lights (e.g. license plate lights) and ambient lighting.

history

The company is originally based on a family business "Otto Schlothauer und Söhne OHG" founded in Ruhla in 1868, which produced pipe pipes, meerschaumware and wooden articles, and the "Metallwerk Alfred Schwarz" factory from Eisenach, founded in 1907. These two companies were merged to form FER , which sold their products under the brand name "MELAS" . This company specializes in the manufacture of carbide and kerosene lights, ball horns, tools for automobiles, motorcycles and bicycles, candle lamps for horse cabs and manually operated windshield wipers. The product portfolio also included lanterns for shipping company purposes, air pumps, pedals, bells and the like. a. Parts.

After the customers ordered more and more electrical accessories over time, both the development of vehicle electrical products and their production became the focus of the company's activities. The main products of that time were electrical end and stop lights, car indicators, number plate and number plate lighting, signal systems, frost protection windows, switches, windshield wiper systems and electric bicycle lights. As early as 1925, 40% of these MELAS products were exported to European countries and Australia .

During the Second World War , production was switched to military equipment, which resulted in the destruction of the plants in Ruhla and Eisenach at the end of the war in 1945. After the end of the war, both company locations were placed under compulsory administration by the occupying powers. On July 17, 1946, these were reactivated as "Elektrowerk Schlothauer" and placed under the control of the SAG "Sowjetische Elektrotechnische AG", which was also led by a Soviet director. In 1947 the plant in Eisenach became the property of the State of Thuringia and with effect from July 1, 1948 it was converted to public ownership as VEB , which from then on was operated under the name "VEB Elektro-Fahrzeugartikel" and continued the trademark "MELAS". From 1950 the factory was also publicly owned and was now called "VEB Elektroarmaturenwerk Ruhla". After some structural changes, further company names followed. In 1958, the "VEB Electrical Vehicle Equipment Ruhla" (EFR) and "VEB Auto- und Fahrradelektrik Eisenach" (AUFA) plants were merged to form the "VEB Vehicle Electrical Equipment Ruhla" (FER). The parent company and the management were located in Ruhla.

Due to the steady increase in the export share in z. B. Comecon countries and the Federal Republic of Germany , the "Kombinat VEB Fahrzeugelektrik Ruhla" was formed in 1968, which at that time employed around 2850 people. The number of employees rose continuously to more than 12,000 until the 1980s, had around 45 operating locations, mainly in Thuringia, Saxony and Berlin, and was a regular supplier to the VW Group. The FER products have been delivered to more than 50 countries, bicycle lights even worldwide.

After the political change in the GDR in 1989, the entire structure of this combine was converted to market economy conditions and from March 1990 placed under the administration of the Treuhandanstalt . To this end, in April 1990, before the monetary, economic and social union , an agreement was reached to set up a joint venture in Eisenach with “Robert Bosch GmbH” from Stuttgart and in May 1990 “VEB Fahrzeugelektrik Ruhla” became “FER Fahrzeugelektrik” GmbH “and converted into a corporation. On the basis of the Trusteeship Act , some sub-businesses were dissolved and others were also converted into corporations. At that time the export proceeds to the non-socialist economic area were still around 145.6 million currency marks (30.6 million DM). In September 1990, the joint venture "Robert Bosch Fahrzeugelektrik Eisenach GmbH" was founded, with 90% of the shares held by "Bosch" and 10% by "FER". Their business activity started in November 1990.

On November 1, 1990, a supervisory board was appointed by the Treuhandanstalt.

In January 1991, the originally independent plant "Aufa Auto- und Fahrradelektrik GmbH" was re-established as a 100% subsidiary in Eisenach. At the first board meeting in March 1991 u. a. the redevelopment-privatization concept that had been developed was approved and the decision was therefore taken to fully privatize the company in a combined MBO / MBI .

On July 1, 1992, the parent company with around 570 employees of the former VEB Kombinat Fahrzeugelektrik Ruhla was privatized by the trust company MBO / MBI . The former main business areas of headlamp production and windshield wiper production were transferred to this group company through cooperation agreements between FER and Robert BOSCH GmbH. In return, around 1900, BOSCH took over employees threatened by unemployment from the FER main plants in Eisenach, Brotterode and Ruhla.

Thanks to the business contacts already developed in the GDR era, FER was able to set up several branches:

  • BEL-FER GmbH, Dzershinsk / Belarus (closed at the end of 2013)
  • Truck-Lite Europe Sp.zo.o., Bydgoszcz / Poland (closed at the end of 2013)
  • FER-Mexicana S.de RL de DV, Puebla / Mexico (Organizationally subordinate to Truck-Lite LLC in the USA)
  • DMC-FER, Hanoi / Vietnam (1997, 70% FER, 30% DMC - MBO to Auto und Fahrradelektrik GmbH (AUFA))

The FER production facility in the Stockhausen industrial park with 330 employees has been part of the American Truck-Lite Group since 2002.

Mainly lights are produced for a large number of well-known German automobile manufacturers such as Audi, Daimler, Volkswagen and BMW. The product range extends from signal lights to brake lights. Apart from headlights, we can manufacture everything that lights up in and on the car. The various components are created with the help of modern technologies in plastic injection, vaporization and painting processes. 100,000 lights leave the factory fully assembled every day, mostly for cars.

As a result of the global financial crisis, the Eisenach employees of Truck-Lite-Europe also had to struggle with a sharp drop in sales. The sales crisis in the automotive industry hit the supplier industry particularly hard, there were redundancies for operational reasons, the workforce shrank to 350 in 2007, and the two managing directors Stefan Kaiser and Jens Arnold were replaced. In 2006 Trucklite achieved total sales of 465 million US dollars, including 85 million US dollars from the former FER group of companies. In January 2007, Dr. Christof Traidl , who had worked as a management consultant with the FER management since 2006, took over the management of the company.

On May 1, 2008 the industrial company FER Fahrzeugelektrik GmbH with its locations in Germany, Mexico, Belarus and Poland was renamed Truck-Lite-Europe . The products will continue to be manufactured and sold under the FER trademark .

Stephan Pfingsten was appointed managing director in 2010 . This set new priorities, the enlarged development team used the latest product technologies and more efficient production techniques, for example through the use of high-performance LEDs, and in the interior lighting area for high-priced vehicles (e.g. Porsche). With the new products and the successful certification according to ISO / TS 16949 it was possible to be classified as an A-supplier with the main customers .

On his inaugural visit to Thuringia, the newly appointed ambassador of the United States to the Federal Republic of Germany, Phil Murphy, arrived in Eisenach on October 7, 2010, accompanied by the American consul general Kathrine Bruckner and, accompanied by Opel director Nick Reilly, visited the Opel factory in Eisenach, the Eisenach old town and the Truck-Lite plant in Eisenach-Stockhausen.

Truck-Lite Europe GmbH has been operating under the name "REBO Lighting & Electronics GmbH" (source: HRB 400313 of November 3, 2017) since 2017, following a resolution by the shareholders' meeting on November 1, 2017.

See also

literature

  • District Office Wartburgkreis (Ed.): Wartburgkreis - Thuringia . LieDesign Suhl, Bad Salzungen 2008, p. 120 .
  • Klaus Lantzsch, Jonni Bachmann: Young and steeped in tradition: FER Fahrzeugelektrik GmbH . In: Eisenach yearbook . tape 1994/95 . Hitzerodt Verlag, Marburg 1994, ISBN 3-89398-163-2 , p. 46-49 .
  • Martin Kersten: The company and its time. From the chronicle of FER Fahrzeugelektrik GmbH . In: Eisenach yearbook . tape 1994/95 . Hitzerodt Verlag, Marburg 1994, ISBN 3-89398-163-2 , p. 50-57 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ company. Retrieved February 1, 2020 (American English).
  2. ↑ FER manufactures the world's first fluorescent license plate
  3. ↑ products. Retrieved February 9, 2020 (American English).
  4. ↑ Interview with the personnel manager of Truck-Lite-Europe GmbH - Mr. Gössel. Thuringian regional newspaper, August 4, 2008.
  5. ^ Announcement on the change in management, Thüringische Allgemeine, March 1, 2007.
  6. ^ Announcement on the change in management, Thüringische Landeszeitung, January 6, 2007.
  7. ↑ History of the company
  8. ↑ 2008 - FER becomes Truck-Lite Europe GmbH
  9. ^ Announcement on the change in management, Thüringische Allgemeine, August 19, 2010.
  10. ↑ Communication on the inaugural visit of the US Ambassador, Thüringische Allgemeine, October 7, 2010.