Hella Lighting Plant Wins Ford Q1 Award

YORK, S.C., March 23 -- Hella Lighting Corporation's York (South Carolina) plant has received Ford Motor Company's top award for quality.

Ford's Q1 award is given for outstanding performance in product quality and service and is a prerequisite for a supplier to win business from Ford.

Hella's York facility produces the center high-mounted signal light (CHMSL) for the 2004 F150 pickup truck and fog lamps for the newly-introduced Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego cars.

"Our employees take a tremendous amount of pride in their work and this award validates their dedication to manufacture the very best products," says Kevin Tarter, the York plant's quality manager.

The York plant also has earned TS 16949 certification, the highest international quality standard.

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 billion, placing Hella among Germany's top 100 industrial companies.

With its corporate headquarters in Lippstadt, Germany, the company employs nearly 24,000 people at 65 manufacturing facilities, production subsidiaries and joint-venture companies in 18 countries. More than 2,000 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 at http://www.hella.com/ .

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