Germany's Koller Beteiligungs opens first plant in the Americas

Koller Beteiligungs GmbH, an interior parts supplier to automakers in Europe, has officially opened its first manufacturing operation in the Americas, just a few miles from Volkswagen AG's assembly plant, 82 miles southeast of Mexico City.

Volkswagen is the first customer of Koller-Group México SA de CV, which is supplying the German auto maker with lightweight trunk floors for the Golf sedan and Tiguan compact crossover in its five- and seven-seat versions.

According to Werner Oestreich, Koller's export manager, the Dietfurt, Germany-based company has a contract to supply Volkswagen de México with 52,000 trunk floors a year for the five-seat Tiguan, 160,000 for the seven-seat version and 80,000 for the Golf.

Karl Ostler, Koller's Dietfurt-based managing director and chief financial officer, told Plastics News at the May 9 opening ceremony that the company believes it is the first trunk floor manufacturer in Mexico to use honeycomb-fiberglass-polyurethane technology, which it says it invented.

He explained that paper honeycomb sheets are placed between two layers of fiberglass, which are then sprayed with PU foam and compressed. The result is a very strong trunk floor that is 50 percent lighter than one made of wood and 20 to 30 percent lighter than one made of plastic, according to Oestreich.

Carpeting and injection molded parts, most of which are made in Europe, are then added. The company designs and produces all its own tools.

"The point is this technology is new. It's why people are so interested," Oestreich said, adding that "we hope to announce more clients within a few weeks."

Koller announced its intention to start operations in Mexico in July 2015. At the time Oestreich said Koller was producing 4 million floors a year in Europe for a variety of customers, ranging from Volkswagen to Land Rover. It started production in Mexico in late 2016.

The company's investment in Mexico to date is $6.5 million. It has a five-year lease on the 54,000-square-foot facility in Puebla, with an option to buy. It employs 50 at the plant and expects to double staff numbers within five years as the company grows.

According to Oestreich, the Mexican subsidiary's sales in 2017 is estimated at $6.3 million and at $15 million to $20 million within five years.

In 2014, Hannover Finanz GmbH, of Hannover, Germany, and Vienna, acquired 75 percent of the shares in Koller Beteiligungs from the brothers Max and Thomas Koller, who launched the company in their garage in 1994. The Koller brothers remain active in the company, where they occupy senior executive positions.

According to Oestreich, Koller introduced the honeycomb-fiberglass-PU technology in Europe in 1999.

He said the electric car revolution has increased the pressure on designers to come up with lightweight solutions. "This low risk application will continue as a very good solution to reduce weight in a vehicle," he said.