Plastics and elastomer specialist ContiTech (Hanover, Germany; www.continental-industry.com) is to undergo a thorough reorganisation in the coming months. By May 2023, the subsidiary of the automotive supplier Continental intends to group together and streamline its automotive activities into a single division.

Up until now, they have been spread over several sub-divisions. The Industry division, which is regarded as a growth driver, is also to be given more attention in the future, according to ContiTech-CEO Philip Nelles. At the same time, the company intends to extend its board of management with a CTO, and an announcement is to be made in the next few days as to who will assume this position.

There appear to be two reasons for the restructuring: on the one hand, because of the transformation in car production generally and, on the other, because of the losses suffered by the group as a whole in Q2 and Q3, 2022.

In reply to an inquiry from Plasteurope.com, a spokesperson for the company emphasised that the reorganisation measures do not basically include job cuts in the total workforce of nearly 40,000 at ContiTech. They did, however, say that, with such a comprehensive measure as this, effects for the employees cannot be entirely excluded.

Only recently, ContiTech carried out restructuring measures at five German hose production sites, which also involved the loss of some jobs (see Plasteurope.com of 19.08.2022).

Essentially, ContiTech is to set up a new business group called Original Equipment Solutions, which will bring together all its automotive activities. Because three of the present six divisions manufacture products both for cars and industrial applications, these will presumably be largely broken up. Whether this will have any consequences for the individual plants is not yet clear.

Related: Car industry shifts dog automotive component makers

The Industry division with drive belts, hose lines, and anti-vibration solutions is to be organised regionally in the future, with units for Asia, the Americas, and Europe & the Middle East.

The only division that will remain unaffected is Surface Solutions, which markets surface materials for, among other things, car interiors. The division is centred around the German core companies Benecke Kaliko (Hanover; www.benecke-kaliko.de) and Hornschuch (Weißbach; www.hornschuch.de).