On November 24, 27 jubilarians and 14 retirees of the GEDIA Automotive Group were honored at Schnellenberg Castle.
Jürgen Hillesheim, representing the shareholders, and members of the management team Klaus Bierwirth, Ulrich Kraft and Markus Engelbertz took the opportunity to explain the current development of the Group.
The automotive industry is in the midst of a transformation into a new age of mobility. This is currently being overshadowed by an increasing number of trouble spots in the world, but also by the lack of a political concept and a considerable inflationary burden on the population.
Despite this volatile market environment, GEDIA has continued to grow, albeit not quite as fast as in previous years. With 9 production plants worldwide and currently 4,700 employees, total sales of around EUR 850 million are forecast by the end of the year. Turnover was originally planned to be even higher, but new vehicle programs have been postponed by car manufacturers and the inflation-related reluctance of consumers to spend has also had a noticeable impact.
Even though the company is cautiously "driving on sight" as it looks ahead to the new financial year, GEDIA is benefiting, as in previous years, from the high level of customer confidence in the engineering and production expertise of the Attendorn team. This can be seen in the successful acquisition of numerous lightweight components for new electric and combustion vehicles. In addition to sophisticated hot-formed structural parts, module and seat cross member assemblies as well as crash management systems were again acquired for the new joint venture location in Shenyang, China, among others.
The number of employees at the company's headquarters in Attendorn is over 1,000, the number of trainees remains high at 85 and the number of dual students at 10.
GEDIA has an enormous wealth of experience, particularly in Attendorn. This year's jubilarians and future retirees alone represent a total of 1,235 years of service at GEDIA. This is not only an impressive number, but also a great challenge and responsibility. After all, this valuable knowledge needs to be transferred and expanded as part of a targeted junior staff development program.
With this in mind, the many employees celebrating anniversaries and retirees were warmly thanked for their many years of commitment and personal achievements.