The Germany-based lighting and electronics specialist HELLA is now embarking on strategic decision with their operations in Sub- Saharan Africa that will enable them to serve as the gateway into Africa.
The local operations office HELLA Automotive South Africa (Pty) Ltd. is currently situated in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape and has been in existence in the Nelson Mandela Bay region for over 40 years. The HELLA brand, which has a stronghold and linkages within the automotive industry in South Africa, will with this new facility further strengthen its operations by building a facility that will cater for both the administration and logistics operations under one roof. The state of the art operations hub, to be built at the Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Zone 2 is valued to be over R30 million. HELLA is set to start operating out of their new facility middle next year.
“Nothing brings us greater joy than to diversify our value proposition with a focus on becoming a powerhouse in Africa, increasing both business and efficiency into the 18 Sub-Saharan African countries which we are already supplying to,” says Theo Theuner the Managing Director of Hella Automotive South Africa (Pty) Ltd. “Our move to the new facility will see HELLA strategically neighboring with some of the biggest automotive companies already in the development zone, namely First Automotive Works (FAW) and Beijing Automotive International Corporation South Africa (BAIC SA).”
HELLA consequently develops its aftermarket business which constitutes an important complement to its core automotive business. Thanks to central market trends, such as autonomous driving, electrification and digitalization, the demand for innovative electronics solutions on the independent aftermarket will further increase. Already today, HELLA has a comprehensive spare part range spanning more than 40 000 products of which 5 000 are stocked items.
