The Behr Group’s industry division manufactures cooling and air conditioning systems for railway and special vehicles, buses, ships, construction and agricultural machinery, the aviation industry, and stationary heavy duty engines for power generation. The business had sales of approximately €206 million in 2008 and currently employs around 900 people in five locations in Germany and the USA.
Mahle will integrate the renamed Mahle Behr Industry into its existing industrial activities for large engines and industrial filtration, creating a new business unit - Mahle Industry - with annual sales of approximately E500 million.
Prof Dr Heinz Junker, chairman of the Mahle Group management board, said: “With its products in the area of thermal management, Behr Industry is an ideal addition to the portfolio of our own industrial activities for large engines and stationary filtration. Like in the automotive sector, filtration and cooling are closely connected. By cross-selling effects and penetrating new business fields such as renewable energies or decentralized power generation, we see substantial growth potential for a new business unit Mahle Industry, coupled with synergy effects. Furthermore, we aim to focus our industrial activities more intensively to international growth outside Europe.”
“With Mahle, we found a partner for our industrial business who is interested in a long-term development of these activities and who will promote its further growth. It is strategically important for Behr to maintain access to attractive growth markets in the cooling and air conditioning business outside the automotive sector,” said Dr Markus Flik, CEO of the Behr Group.