Former TechniSat Automotive is now on a growth course as "Preh Car Connect" with a new partner and newly established business leadership team
Dresden/Bad Neustadt a. d. Saale. At the Dresden headquarters of Preh Car Connect GmbH in Business Park Merbitz the time has come for further growth. In the current financial year, the automotive supplier is creating some 120 new high-tech workplaces in the Dresden location. To do so, the company has rented new office space in Königsbrückerstraße in the north of Dresden where about 100 developers/engineers will have their new place of work.
In addition, Preh Car Connect is also planning to expand its main location in Business Park Merbitz and the design will start shortly. The new management team expects growth impulses from the “megatrend” towards connectivity of vehicles and the close technological cooperation with the Preh Group from Bad Neustadt a.d. Saale. Preh Holding and its Chinese parent company Joyson had jointly acquired the former TechniSat Automotive at the end of April 2016 and integrated it into the Preh Group.
When presenting the growth plans in the context of a press meeting in Dresden, Christoph Hummel, CEO of Preh Holding, said: “The former TechniSat Automotive is a perfect addition to the Preh Group. We can now combine the human machine interface system competencies of Preh with the know-how of the new Preh Car Connect in the fields of infotainment, connectivity and telematics into new comprehensive solutions. The new partnership is therefore not about synergies and rationalization, but about a growth-oriented combination of technological competencies and market access. This will bring a big opportunity for the entire corporate group and for its employees and customers.”
To support the planned growth, the management of Preh Car Connect GmbH has been newly appointed and expanded. Effective 1 July 2016, Dr. Ralf Voß has taken on the function of CEO. Voß has many years of leadership experience in the markets for mobility and automotive supplies. His last appointment was as managing director at Knorr-Bremse, Systeme für Schienenfahrzeuge GmbH (SfS). He previously held a range of leadership positions at the automotive supplier Hella KGaA Hueck & Co and at Daimler AG. Also on 1 July 2016, Stefan Gottschlag was appointed as part of the management of Preh Car Connect GmbH and has taken over the newly created function Product Development (CTO) there. Gottschlag was already active for around three and a half years at Preh Car Connect resp. its predecessor company as head of development. Benjamin Lobenz who previously held different leadership positions in production and logistics in the Preh Group has been responsible for the Production Process and Locations (COO) since the beginning of May 2016.
On 1 September 2016, Chris Wenzel will also join the management team and take responsibility for the commercial division as CFO. She was most recently Business Administration Manager/General Manager at Freiberger Compound Materials GmbH, a leading semiconductor materials manufacturer.
The Preh Group is showing double-digit growth
Both the Preh Group and Preh Car Connect GmbH are looking back to a strong year 2015. The Preh Group had increased sales in the fields of automotive supply and automation by 25 % to the new best result of EUR 763 million. The predecessor company of Preh Car Connect also grew in the double-digit range in 2015 and could record sales income of EUR 400 million.
The prospects for the current financial year are also positive: After the first half of 2016, Preh Group CEO Christoph Hummel sees the group continuing on a dynamic growth course. With the combined competencies of Preh and Preh Car Connect, a technological group has emerged representing a global player for Car Connectivity and Human Machine Interface Systems (HMI) with a sales volume of far above EUR 1 billion under the roof of the Chinese partner Joyson. In this regard, Dr. Ralf Voß, Management Speaker of Preh Car Connect, said: “Cars not only bring their occupants from A to B, they are now a mobile control center. The data exchange of the vehicle with mobile devices like smartphones or hands-free equipment is growing in importance and networking beyond the boundaries of the vehicle is increasingly expanding. Whoever wants to be on board of the mega trend of networked vehicles and the global platform requests of car manufacturers needs a certain size as a company and correspondingly high technological and financial resources. Together with our partners Joyson and Preh we are strongly positioned and can create new innovative solutions for the operation and networking of vehicles.”
What cooperation can look like was explained by the Development Head of Preh Car Connect, Stefan Gottschlag: “For example, it is possible to integrate the haptic feedback from Preh operating systems into our Dresden based navigation and infotainment systems, while our tuners or internet-connected assistance systems can supplement Preh central consoles. In this way, we will offer innovations from a single provider and create added value for our customers.”
Preh Car Connect GmbH develops and manufactures innovative products and software solutions in the fields of car infotainment and navigation as well as vehicle networking and telematics. As a direct supplier of the automotive industry (Tier 1) the company has many years of experience as a development partner for the navigation systems of renowned automotive manufacturers, above all the Volkswagen Group. The competencies of the new Preh subsidiary which have evolved over many years also include software solutions for tuners and telematics.
