ZF Lemforder aligns future expansion to JLR growth after £6.5m investment
A MAJOR supplier to Jaguar Land Rover has marked a milestone in its production history by aligning its future growth strategy with that of its principal customer.
ZF Lemforder in Solihull supplies axle sub-assemblies to JLR for use on the Land Rover Discovery, Range Rover and Ranger Rover Sport.
The plant, which has just celebrated in 10th anniversary, is just six miles away from JLR’s Lode Lane plant, on the Birmingham International Park, adjacent to Birmingham Airport.
The operation is part of the ZF Group, a huge global business with around 74,000 employees worldwide and sales for the current year on target to exceed €18bn.
Its 122 separate production companies are spread throughout 26 countries, the majority centred in Europe. It supplies almost all of the major automotive OEMs.
The plant in Solihull purely supplies Jaguar Land Rover, providing complete sub-assemblies for the three 4x4s plus it also supplies the four-wheel-drive North American export versions of the Jaguar XF and XJ.
The plant has been producing axle corner modules for the off-road manufacturer since 2004, when it employed just 43 people.
The firm has now undergone a £6.5m expansion which has seen it install a second assembly line so that it can keep pace with its customer’s growing production volumes. Its workforce has almost trebled to 113.
The company’s focus on quality together with its willingness to invest in expansion has seen it secure long-term supply deals with JLR. So efficient is the operation that JLR even cites it as a benchmark for its other suppliers.
To date, around £13m has been invested into the plant and the factory is just about full.
The second assembly line will shortly enter full production and the company may adopt a three-shift system to ensure it can keep up with JLR’s demand.
Terry Somerfield, managing director of the Solihull plant, said the company had had to put in a lot of hard work during the past few years but this had paid off.
JLR has awarded it supply contracts for the next generation of Land Rover models. It is currently working on programmes going into production until 2017.
“We’ve had to work very hard but we are getting the rewards now and JLR has backed us by awarding these new supply contracts so that will help with our own growth strategy,” he said.
Part of the reason why JLR has shown so much faith in the company down the years is because of its specialist knowledge in the use of aluminium production techniques.
ZF was one of the pioneers in the use of aluminium assembly work and with JLR’s switch to all-aluminium construction for its new generation of vehicles, the knowledge ZF has been able to impart has been vitally important.
