Hella Wins 2004 'Quest for Excellence' Award

PLYMOUTH, Mich., July 19 -- Hella North America, a major supplier of lighting, electronic equipment sensors and front-end modules to the auto industry, has received a 2004 Quest for Excellence Award from the readers of Automotive Industries magazine.

The award recognizes the auto industry's top suppliers in more than 40 distinct product categories and is based on customer evaluations of quality, innovation, pricing, delivery and service support. Hella was honored by the magazine's readers for excellence in the field of automotive lighting systems.

Rob Wilson, publisher of Automotive Industries, said that "to be ranked by your customers as the 'best of the best' is a significant achievement. Our seventh annual Quest for Excellence Award calls attention to the outstanding job Hella has done to optimize product quality, final design, cost and speed to market."

Joe Borruso, president and CEO of Hella North America, noted that the award was especially meaningful because it came from Hella's OEM customers. "To be recognized by the automotive community for maintaining high standards of excellence in all areas of our business is one of the highest honors a supplier can achieve."

Lighting, electronics, complete vehicle modules, air-conditioning systems, vehicle-wiring systems and signal processing for the automobile industry, as well as automotive aftermarket components, are the core fields of competency for automotive supplier Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. Sales for the Hella Group are approximately $3.8 billion, placing Hella among Germany's top 100 industrial companies.

With its corporate headquarters in Lippstadt, Germany, the company employs more than 22,800 people at 61 manufacturing facilities, production subsidiaries and joint-venture companies in 18 countries. More than 1,800 engineers and technicians work in research and development. All of the world's leading automobile and systems manufacturers are Hella customers, as well as the automotive components aftermarket.

Additional information is available on the Internet at http://www.hella.com/ .