Brose at the IAA 2011: Favorable market interest sends out positive signals

The 64th IAA International Automobile Exhibition in Frankfurt has once again proved to be our industry's most important trade show with more than 900,000 visitors. The Brose Group can also look back on a successful trade fair participation. "We received very positive feedback on our developments from our customers, which confirms that we are on the right track," says Jürgen Otto, CEO of the Brose Group. Almost 5,200 visitors in all were welcomed in the Brose
lounge during the two-week fair, including 2,500 experts and members of the press as well as more than 2,000 junior academic staff, who wanted to find out more about the numerous job entry prospects and career opportunities at Brose.

Majority of new vehicles equipped with Brose products

The majority of the 90 vehicle launches presented at the IAA to the public are equipped with Brose window regulators, door, seat and closure systems as well as motors for various vehicle applications. One in three vehicles manufactured worldwide are currently fitted with at least one Brose product.

Brose innovations attract great interest

The visitors' focus was on the new Brose compact window regulator, lightweight door systems and seat structures, performance and weight-optimized drives for cooling fans and HVAC blowers as well as mechatronic system solutions that provide a discernible benefit for the end customer: the refined system for the touch-free opening and closing of liftgates with collision protection and anti-trap feature, for example, as well as the grill shutter control system with "failsafe" feature - unique on the market to date. The majority of the showcased products are ready for production and contracts have already been awarded for some.

As part of their tour of the IAA, Matthias Wissmann, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) and VDA Managing Director Klaus Bräunig[g1] together with Gabriele Zimmermann visited the Brose lounge on September 22nd, 2011. VDA President Wissmann was impressed by the broad product portfolio and the lightweight construction and improvements in performance of the innovations presented.

North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister of Economic Affairs Harry K. Voigtsberger (Social Democratic Party of Germany) along with other members of the ministry, VDA and Automotive Cluster NRW, visited the lounge of the international automotive supplier Brose at the IAA in Frankfurt on September 16th, 2011. The politician was particularly interested in the closure systems business developments and the Wuppertal location, headquarters of this area of expertise. Some 8.5 million closure systems for more than 20 automotive customers, e.g. Ford, Land Rover and Fiat, are produced annually at this Brose plant. In view of the product novelties presented to him and the activities of the Brose-SEW joint venture in the field of e-mobility, Voigtsberger emphasized the importance of automotive suppliers for the business location of North Rhine-Westphalia. According to the minister, their role as an innovation motor is an asset that cannot be overestimated.

Premiere for the electric mobility product range

The IAA was also an ideal platform to present the product range of the Brose-SEW joint venture to the experts for the first time: drives and charging technology for electric mobility ranging from 0.25 to 125 kilowatt. A separately excited synchronous motor developed jointly with SEW-Eurodrive is currently being tested by a European customer. The aggregate with a peak performance of 100 kilowatt can function without use of rare earth magnet material, thus providing significant cost benefits.

The new products for e-mobility were also the center of attention of the Brose Group shareholders meeting that took place on September 20th in the IAA lounge.

Successful presentation as an attractive employer

"The IAA was not only an excellent opportunity to demonstrate our expertise as a mechatronics specialist, we were also able to use the world’s biggest automotive trade fair as an ideal platform to present Brose as an attractive employer," explained Jürgen Otto. More than 2,000 junior academic staff and experts, including 700 students from 11 universities, visited the Brose lounge to find out about the numerous career opportunities in the family-owned company. Moreover, Brose participates in the VDA initiative "GoING". This nationwide campaign is aimed at pupils in their final years of upper secondary education to promote their interest in an engineering profession. A total of 80 pupils visiting the IAA Brose lounge were interested in Brose's international training and apprenticeship program.