The board of managing directors of Schaeffler AG and its supervisory board have signed off on a 180 million-euro investment to build a new state-of-the-art assembly and packaging center, called “Aftermarket Kitting Operation” (AKO), in the “Star Park” industrial estate in the city of Halle (Saale), Germany. 

Occupying an area of more than 40,000 square meters, the new facility will assemble and package kits from Schaeffler’s inventory of automotive aftermarket spare parts and repair solutions. The plant will be commissioned in late 2019. The construction and operation of the facility will be managed by general contractor and third-party logistics provider Neovia Logistics. The project will create around 900 new jobs at the Halle (Saale) location.

The new assembly and packaging center will further optimize Schaeffler’s Automotive Aftermarket processes and generate sustained improvements in quality of delivery. It will be the main supply hub for all of the Automotive Aftermarket division’s other regional warehouses in Europe while at the same time serving as the regional warehouse for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Once the new center is up and running, customers in those countries will benefit from even shorter delivery times.

Michael Söding, designated member of the Schaeffler AG board of managing directors and head of the company’s Automotive Aftermarket division, explains: “Our agreement with Neovia Logistics marks an important milestone on our way to building a state-of-the-art assembly and packaging center in Halle’s ‘Star Park’ industrial estate. The center will further optimize our processes and throughput times and hence enable us to provide an even faster, more reliable and more flexible service to our customers.”

Over 40,000 different parts and components for passenger cars, light and heavy utility vehicles and tractors will be picked, packaged and dispatched at the new assembly and packaging facility. The center’s inventory comprises parts for clutch, clutch release, engine, transmission and chassis systems.

Klaus Rosenfeld, chief executive officer Schaeffler AG, said: “The investment underscores the strategic importance of our Automotive Aftermarket business, which will be managed as a stand-alone division by Söding as from January 1, 2018. It is also a clear sign of our commitment to Germany as a business location and to our strategy ‘Mobility for tomorrow’. On that basis we will further raise our competitiveness and consolidate our position as a leading technology partner to our automotive customers in Europe and around the world.”