Hella Automotive Lighting

By 1984, Hella's annual sales exceeded 1 million deutschmarks for the first time, and by 1990 it had over 20,000 employees worldwide. Eventually, Hella came up with numerous innovations to automotive lighting, including being the first manufacturer to receive approval for a halogen headlamp, as well as pioneering the first generation of Xenon and Bi-Xenon headlamps too. More recently, Hella produced the first full LED headlamp with AFS functions.

Hella consists of 4 separate divisions that are: lighting, electronics, aftermarket and special applications. Under its lighting division, it develops and manufacturers Hella headlights, fog lights, and driving lights, while at the same time developing technologies that will be useful in the future such as light-based driver assistance systems. Whether you need Hella LED driving lights or any other Hella light, our website is your one-stop source. Its electronics division focuses on various sensors, vacuum pumps as well as central control units, while its aftermarket division comprises of a product range that is more than 24,000 strong.

Today, Hella is a global company that spans 70 different locations in 30 different countries and employs upwards of 28,000 people. Its main business is the development and manufacture of lighting and electronic systems for the automotive industry, and it has earned itself a position as one of the top 50 global automotive suppliers. Largely, this is based on its sales of 4.8 billion euros for the fiscal year of 2011/2012 which also makes it one of the top 100 largest industrial companies in Germany.

When Hella was first founded way back in 1899, it was known as the Westfalische Metall-Industrie Aktien-Gesellschaft (WMI) and its primary business was producing ball horns, candles, and kerosene lamps for carriages. The first time the name 'Hella' was used as a trademark for acetylene headlights in 1908. Although Hella expanded quickly when the manufacturing family Ludenscheider Hueck took over the majority of the shares from its founder Sally Windmuller, it fell sharply from a high of a 1,000 strong workforce in 1937 to a 45-strong workforce after World War 2 in 1945.

Last but certainly not least, its special applications division supplies various specific target groups such as boat builders, emergency services, producers of construction machinery and so on – predominantly with lighting solutions that fit their needs. Other Hella subsidiaries also deal with a wide range of other diverse applications including marine lighting, climate control systems, engine cooling and so on. In short, it is hard to pin Hella down in any way, shape or form as its network of subsidiaries and joint ventures is so vast that it is involved in so many different areas of the industry. Long story short, Hella certainly appears like it is going to continue to scale the ranks of global automotive suppliers.