Starting Shot For Global Cooperation With ZF Services - Bosch Plans To Acquire Autocrew GmbH

STUTTGART, Germany – February 20, 2009: The Bosch Automotive Aftermarket division plans to acquire AutoCrew GmbH, based in Schweinfurt, Germany. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of ZF Trading GmbH (ZF Services business unit). The purchase agreement was signed on February 18, 2009. It has been agreed that the purchase price will not be disclosed. The acquisition is subject to approval by the antitrust authorities.

The acquisition of AutoCrew marks the start of global cooperation between Bosch and ZF Services. In the future, data and technical information relating to all ZF Services products will be incorporated into Esitronic, the Bosch workshop information software. In addition, ZF Services will become a preferred cooperation partner for AutoCrew and the Bosch Car Service.

AutoCrew is the owner of the eponymous full-service concept for independent vehicle workshops. Workshops can put together the package they require from diverse service modules, ranging from technology, IT and management, to advertising. Across Europe, AutoCrew is the partner of some 600 workshops in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, with roughly 450 workshops in Germany alone.

“AutoCrew is a recognized brand in the workshop business. This concept will provide workshops and wholesalers with a further possibility of working together more closely with Bosch,” says Robert Hanser, president of the Automotive Aftermarket division.

In Bosch, ZF Services has found an established and forward-looking buyer for AutoCrew, and has set the stage for the further development and increased internationalization of the full-service workshop idea. For Alois Ludwig, chairman of ZF Services, the decision was not an easy one: “We had some very attractive offers for AutoCrew, which is first and foremost an indicator of the quality of this idea and its workshops. In the end, Bosch won the day with its business concept, which includes the internationalization we regard as absolutely essential.” The sale also met with the broad approval of AutoCrew’s workshop, industrial, and service partners, who were informed in advance of the planned deal.

In acquiring AutoCrew, the Bosch Automotive Aftermarket division hopes to extend its portfolio of concepts for workshops. In the future, AutoCrew will be run as an discrete concept, independent of the Bosch Service organization. The two systems will continue to maintain their own independent brands. Over the next few years, AutoCrew will be launched in new markets – first in Europe and then worldwide.

Apart from the supply, sale, and marketing of auto parts, the Bosch Automotive Aftermarket division focuses on supplying car workshops with diagnostic equipment, as well as on promoting and supporting the Bosch Car Service workshop concept, with its more than 14,300 garages worldwide. With some 5,000 associates, the Automotive Aftermarket division generated sales of roughly 3.5 billion euros in fiscal 2007.