Canadian supplier giant Magna is growing even bigger, bringing in new competence in German engineering. The acquisition of the BÖCO Group of Companies is admitted a small one in terms of size but it comes in an important area.
BÖCO specialises in automotive latching systems for hoods and tailgates along with hinges and locks. Founded in Wuppertal, Germany, it expanded into China two years ago with a location in Tianjin. Plans are underway to set up operations in Bulgaria and Mexico.
“BÖCO has been producing hood hinges and secondary latches for over 30 years. In this area, it takes many years to develop a credible engineering organisation,” John O’Hara, President of Magna Closures, told Automotive World. “One of our areas today that’s not as strong as I would like is our German engineering.”
Importantly, BÖCO has gained credibility with the German Big Three: Daimler, BMW and Audi. “We can capitalise on pedestrian safety with the hood and hinge combination and bolster our side door latch engineering with BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi,” O’Hara added. At the moment, Magna already provides the majority of Audi’s side door latches and some of the side door latches for Daimler and BMW.
Magna first approached BÖCO about a year ago and acquisition talks between the two have been going on since then. “The owner was not really selling the business,” explained O’Hara. But Magna knew what it wanted. “We’ve been trying to strengthen our global engineering business. It’s difficult to start up from scratch, though we have done it in the past,” he added.
BÖCO employs about 450 people across the German and China operations. After the acquisition they will be integrated into Magna Closures, which has no plans to cut loose any areas. “Everything they produce we’ll build on and globalise,” emphasised O’Hara.
The current plants in Germany and China have been under extreme manufacturing pressure, he observed. “They have been going into Eastern Europe, Mexico, China and India. Expanding globally can be expensive. Our Magna Closures group is probably the most global group in all of Magna with our facilities, which are spread across 19 countries,” said O’Hara.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2016, providing regulatory approvals come through from Germany, Austria and Hungary.
The BÖCO acquisition is just the latest purchase announced this year by Magna International. At the start of the year it completed the acquisition of transmission specialist Getrag. A few months later it signed a deal to acquire Telemotive, an engineering service provider in automotive electronics.
“We are already the leader in the closures. The BÖCO deal bolsters our footprint and our product portfolio. It is a small acquisition for us,” noted O’Hara. “Just with those few tweaks in footprint for engineering and hood hinge technology it helps us bring our global group together.”
