Continental closing 2 Automotive sites in Germany

As part of measures outlined in February, on 26 March 2024 Continental announced the planned closure of its Wetzlar and Schwalbach sites in Germany. Both belong to the company’s non-tyre Automotive group sector.

The company will transfer the activities currently conducted at both sites to other Continental Automotive plants in Germany, relocating around 1,100 jobs to its facilities in Frankfurt and Babenhausen. Continental will cut a further 1,200 or so jobs. Following the anticipated conclusion of this process by the end of 2025, Continental will sell the Wetzlar and Schwalbach sites.

Improving cost structure, strengthening R&D cooperation

Continental describes these measures as a merger of the sites and says that by doing so, the Automotive group sector is “leveraging synergies, simplifying work processes, shortening development times and reducing costs through better utilisation of the existing infrastructure.” Philipp von Hirschheydt, head of Automotive, states: “With these measures, we are improving our cost structure and, in particular, strengthening cooperation in research and development.

“In the future, we will make even better use of our strengths in the field of vehicle software and architecture at the competence centre in Frankfurt (which is now being built) and thus bring our technologies and solutions to market maturity more quickly.”

Continental’s Automotive business sector plans to reduce the share of research and development expenditure (R&D ratio) to less than ten per cent of sales in 2028. By streamlining its administrative structures worldwide, the Automotive sector intends to reduce costs by 400 million euros per year. The full scope is to be achieved from 2025.