This duel electrified the car industry: German factories of a Bosnian entrepreneurial family stopped their deliveries to Wolfsburg in 2016 – and thus shut down two VW plants. Now the group drops the supplier.
Prevent company headquarters (archive)
Friday, 06.04.2018
10:51
On August 2016, the chief buyers of the Volkswagen Group remember exactly – if not particularly like. For then a small supplier made the Wolfsburg car giant look pretty bad. In the dispute over a major order that had been canceled, two German subsidiaries of the Bosnian Prevent Group temporarily stopped deliveries to the Volkswagen Group in August. For days therefore stood in the VW plants in Wolfsburg and Emden Ribbons still.
Ultimately, VW and Prevent agreed in weeks of negotiations new supply contracts, Ostensibly, the Prevent Group and its daughters won the fight against the Goliath Volkswagen. But now happens what industry experts already shortly after the agreement between Prevent and Volkswagen predicted: Volkswagen drops the Prevent Group completely. Thus, the alleged winners become losers – in a quick process.
The fierce supplier Zoff is said to have cost VW a significant three-digit million amount in 2016 – because the Wolfsburg had previously overlooked an important detail. The Prevent group had cleverly incorporated the small metal casting specialist ES Automobilguss and thus bought a powerful negotiating position. When VW wanted to sort out another Prevent subsidiary after a long cooperation, Prevent used this power to the full extent, to the surprise of Volkswagen.
Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg (archive)
After a good two years, Volkswagen is now back in full force. The Wolfsburg have the supply contracts with the Prevent subsidiaries ES Automotive Casting, Car Trim and Prevent Foamtech terminated without notice, The first two were those companies that discontinued deliveries to Volkswagen two years ago, triggering the strip downtime.
700 employees directly affected by delivery contract termination
The accusation of a late revenge shows Volkswagen of itself, however, the group also explained that he is dependent on a “always plannable and trusting cooperation” with its suppliers. The sees the Volkswagen Group at Prevent apparently no longer exist.
Prevent, in turn, announced that it was too close to the affected daughters Short-time work and dismissals for the approximately 700 employees will come. Prevent wants to initiate “legal protection measures” against the extraordinary dismissal.
With legal skirmishes the Prevent group, which has the Bosnian entrepreneurial family Hastor heard, plenty of experience. That’s how Prevent fears for years also with Daimler in court for the delivery of seat covers and demands 40 million euros in damages. A judge was recently declared to be biased at the request of Prevent, further delaying the proceedings.
And the tactics of acquiring a better bargaining position through acquisitions has also been pursued by the Prevent Group in recent months. However, only one deal was successful. In January, they took over the Saarland casting specialists Halberg Guss with around 3000 employees, Halberg’s supply contracts with Volkswagen are reported to continue – for the time being.
The list of Prevent’s spectacular failures is long. For months, the Hastors tried about a hostile takeover of the car interior specialist Grammer. there they failed because of the resistance of the Grammer management, who brought in a Chinese investor in defense to the defense.
Read also: The empire of the Bosnian entrepreneurial family Hastor
Also in the German furniture industry, the Hastors bought. The upholstery manufacturer Gepade let the Hastors go broke a few months after the takeover. At the dining room outfitter Wössner, which has also been taken over, the Hastors are relocating production to Bosnia in the blink of an eye.
Largest deal was last the assumption of the Kitchen specialist Alno, Also this transaction ends after a few months in the bankruptcy, the remains snatched the Consultant legend Roland Berger, Currently, the prosecutor investigates twelve alno managers because of Suspected bankruptcy,
Confidence in German industry is not exactly what you are buying. In the automotive industry, the Prevent Group has developed such a dubious reputation: namely that of a riot-supplier, who is also on the black list of other German automakers long ago.
Decline of Prevents automotive supplier subsidiaries mapped out
After the failures of Grammer and Alno, the trouble with Daimler and now the dismissal by VW, the Hastors no longer has much power or economic strength left to make themselves irreplaceable in the auto industry.
In the auto parts business, the dismissal of VW should accelerate the decline of the Prevent subsidiaries. How much the Volkswagen Group, for example, is eager to get away from Prevent, shows a report by WirtschaftsWoche. According to Volkswagen costs the exit at Prevent around 200 million euros. Of this would be needed 159 million euros to enable other suppliers to take over the orders, the magazine wrote, citing an internal VW presentation. In addition, there would be claims for damages in an unknown amount.
But one could turn Prevent’s brutal tactics into personal advancement: Car-Trim CEO Vahidin Feriz, whom Prevent had installed after acquiring Car Trim in May 2016. At the end of February 2018, Feriz became managing director of the most important German Hastor vehicle, Prevent DEV. Just in time, so that he no longer has to explain to Car-Trim employees what consequences an enmity with Volkswagen has.