Continental Presents Nine Companies with its Automotive Supplier of the Year 2008 Award

REGENSBURG, GERMANY - July 28, 2009: Continental Automotive Group has rewarded the performance of nine suppliers with its Automotive Supplier of the Year 2008 Award. "The global success of Continental as a systems supplier for the automotive industry would be unthinkable without our own long-standing suppliers, whose expertise and experience bolsters our development, production and logistics capabilities," said Helmut Matschi, head of Continental’s Automotive Interior Division, during yesterday's awards ceremony in Regensburg. "Our prime objective is to deliver innovative, flawless products to our customers. Suppliers play a major role in helping us achieve this. Although Continental has granted this coveted accolade for a number of years, 2009 is the first time that the best suppliers have been identified across the entire Automotive Group, including the former Siemens VDO business. The Group encompasses the Chassis & Safety, Powertrain and Interior divisions.

Four awards in the electro-mechanics category
Continental receives raw materials, components and development support from more than 4,000 suppliers worldwide. Four of these companies collected the Automotive Supplier of the Year 2008 Award in the electro-mechanics category:

Söhnergroup, Germany, is a broadline supplier providing Continental with complex plastic mechatronics products such as transmission control modules, sensor modules and ABS housings.

Meiko Electronics of Japan, a leading manufacturer of printed circuit boards (PCBs) for the global automotive industry, receives the accolade for its technological expertise.

Schläger Kunststofftechnik GmbH, based in Bayreuth, Bavaria, wins the Supplier Award in the mechatronics global category for the innovative developmental support it provides in the field of injection systems.

Kolektor Group, based in Idrija, Slovenia, stands out for its innovative excellence in the field of engine components.

Five awards for electronics suppliers
There were five sub-categories for electronics suppliers this year, with the following companies coming out on top:

ST Microelectronics, Italy, one of the world's leading manufacturers of semiconductors for automotive applications, receives the Supplier Award as a broadline distributor in the electronics cluster.

Nippon Chemi-Con, Japan, is a leading manufacturer of electrolytic capacitors. The supreme dedication it demonstrates deservedly makes the company the Supplier of the Year in the passive components category.

Osram, Germany, is a high-volume supplier of optoelectronic components for instrument clusters and wins the award in the electronic standard components category.

Renesas Technology, Japan, is also one of the world's leading manufacturers of semiconductors for automotive applications. The exceptional quality of its products wins it the Supplier Award in the integrated circuits category.

Freescale, USA, is the world's number one supplier of microcontrollers to the automotive industry. The tech company manufactures a wide range of 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit products and receives the Supplier of the Year 2008 Award in the microcontroller category.

Günter Fella, head of purchasing at Continental Automotive, praised the high quality of the supplier network: "We currently work together with a wide-ranging portfolio of suppliers, who meet our requirements in 30 different technological categories and in more than 60 locations worldwide. Going forward, we endeavor to strengthen collaborations with our preferred suppliers in all fields."