Hella Lighting

Hella is a listed, internationally positioned automotive supplier and a company of the Group FORVIA. Within this factual group, Hella stands for high-performance lighting technology and vehicle electronics. At the same time, the company covers a broad service and product portfolio for the spare parts and workshop business as well as for manufacturers of special vehicles with its business group Lifecycle Solutions. Hella has 36,000 employees at more than 125 locations worldwide and generated currency and portfolio-adjusted sales of € 6.5 billion in the fiscal year 2020/2021.

Since the company was established in 1899, innovation and technological leadership has been an essential part of Hella's strategy. Hella invests around 10 percent of its sales in the development of new future technologies every year; almost 8,000 employees work in research and development worldwide.

Hella and Faurecia operate under the umbrella brand "FORVIA"; as a factual group, they form the world's seventh largest automotive supplier and one of the global market leaders in high-growth technology fields. Faurecia currently holds just over 80 percent of the shares in Hella; on this basis, both companies will continue to operate as independent, listed entities with their own supervisory bodies and management teams.

FORVIA comprises the complementary technology and industrial strengths of Faurecia and Hella. With over 300 industrial sites and 77 R&D centers, 150,000 people, including more than 35,000 engineers across more than 40 countries, FORVIA provides a unique and comprehensive approach to the automotive challenges of today and tomorrow. Composed of six business groups with 24 product lines, and a strong IP portfolio of over 14,000 patents, FORVIA is focused on becoming the preferred innovation and integration partner for OEMS worldwide. FORVIA aims to be a change maker committed to foreseeing and making the mobility transformation happen.

Lighting business group product portfolio comprises four product lines: headlamps, rear combination lamps, car body lighting (including radomes, illuminated logos as well as panels) and interior lighting. Hella supplies both the premium and the volume segment; in particular, Hella has built up a strong market position in the context of sophisticated lighting technologies thanks to many years of cooperation with almost all renowned original equipment manufacturers worldwide. In the fiscal year 2020/2021, the Lighting business group generated sales of € 2.9 billion and currently employs a workforce of around 19,000 staff.

Hella's innovative strength in automotive lighting technology has always formed a part of the company’s history, starting with the first acetylene headlamp in 1908. It was the first outstanding product innovation of the then recently established company. Latest milestones: the development of digital, chip-based SSL100 and Digital Light SSL | HD headlamp systems.

The highlight of the SSL100 headlamp: all lighting functions, including legal or regionspecific adjustments, are implemented exclusively using an identical, software-controlled lighting module. The digital control unit can activate each pixel individually and display the entire light distribution according to the respective requirements. A variety of up to twelve technically different headlamp types thus becomes superfluous. In 2020, the SSL100 light module was therefore also launched on the market as the "world headlamp".

The high-resolution "Digital Light SSL | HD" matrix LED system goes one step further. With this lighting technology, more than 30,000 pixels can be controlled intelligently and individually. Therefore, as well as further improving light functions that have already been established, such as an adaptive, glare-free high beam, additional light-based safety functions can be implemented, for example in the form of an optical lane assistant or coming home and goodbye animations. The light dots are generated by light sources that are merely the size of a fingernail. This increases efficiency, reduces installation space and creates new design possibilities. In summer 2022, Digital Light SSL | HD will go into series production for the first time.

Hella is a company with a global focus and over 125 sites in some 35 countries. Hella launched its first factory outside Germany in as early as 1961; Hella was already operating in China at the beginning of the 1990s and has continuously expanded into other regions. The company's global presence is therefore also reflected in the distribution of its sales by region. In the past fiscal year 2020/2021, Hella generated 32 percent of its sales in Germany, 29 percent in other European countries and the remaining 39 percent of sales on the markets of North, Central and South America as well as Asia/Pacific/Rest of the World. This proximity to customers is a key success factor for Hella. In this way, changes in the sector can be anticipated more easily and regional or customer-specific solutions can be offered in a targeted manner.

In addition to the company headquarters, other central production and development facilities are based in Germany. In addition, Hella is represented in Europe with major production, development and administrative sites, primarily in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, France, Romania and Lithuania. In North, Central and South America, Hella's presence is focused in particular on the USA, Mexico and Brazil. In Asia/Pacific/Rest of World, the focus is particularly on China, India, South Korea and Japan, as well as Australia and New Zealand. This international setup is complemented by a close-knit network of worldwide sales outlets.