Press Release

2008/09/17 ZF Services makes its first appearance at Automechanika

• Company makes its debut as system supplier with new products and services

ZF Services will be unveiled to the motor industry at this year’s Automechanika fair in Frankfurt. The new aftermarket organization, a merger of ZF Trading and the ZF Sales & Service Organization (SSO), sees the trade fair as an ideal forum for promoting existing know-how and new strengths. Complete axle and transmission modules, rather than individual components, will be exhibited for the first time to illustrate the transformation from parts dealer to system supplier. The company will continue its tried and tested strategy of exhibiting in two halls – Halls 3 and 8.

Tried and tested strategy: Stand A91 in Hall 3 and F51 in Halle 8

Stand A91 in Hall 3 will display the services offered by the ZF Group as a whole, with particular emphasis on the newly-created ZF Services. This stand is targeted mainly at wholesalers and gives them an impression of the comprehensive range of products offered by ZF Services and the strength of the ZF brands Sachs, Lemförder, Boge and ZF Parts. The display in Hall 8 is designed more specifically for the repair workshop, giving engineers, workshop owners and wholesalers’ customer service staff information specific to their needs and the right contacts. The focus here is on the wide variety of services offered to repair workshops for cars and commercial vehicles.

Optimizing the service concepts: OSS and Lemförder plus

In the future, ZF Services will offer only one optimized Original Sachs Service (OSS) Folder. This will cover the range of separate services offered for cars and commercial vehicles, although servicing and marketing services, such as decoration and advertising materials, can now be used across the board. At the end of this year, the Lemförder plus services will also be extended to commercial vehicles, so assembly instructions, for example, will be available for commercial vehicles as well.

New products for Automechanika: Strengthening the Lemförder brand

Ensuring safe driving is an essential part of all servicing and repair work carried out by workshops, so branded products are an absolute necessity. To strengthen the Lemförder brand, which mainly supplies parts to this sector, ZF Services will offer its range of rubber-to-metal parts under this brand only, and no longer under the Boge brand. The relevant rubber-to-metal parts will now be added to the existing Lemförder range of steering and chassis parts, drive elements, brakes and control components under the same name. The transfer process will be completed in April 2009 and the Lemförder brand will then include over 4,400 items.

The Lemförder range of rubber-to-metal parts for cars consists of 1,600 items for applications such as spring strut mounts, engine mounts, sub-frame mounts or control arm mounts, as well as other parts ranging from axles to tension struts. All parts are developed and produced according to the vehicle manufacturer’s specifications: conventional rubber and metal mounts and hydraulic mounts which have a shock-absorber function integrated into the rubber-to-metal part. These can now also be operated electronically.

ZF Services will also exhibit a much larger range of shock absorbers at Automechanika. The range for Asian vehicles has been expanded to include 300 new items, optimizing the global range offered by the company in response to the rising demand from Eastern Europe and from all countries with an increasing number of Japanese or Korean vehicles.

ZF Services’ Claim: System competence delivers an attractive service

Alois Ludwig, Chairman of the Board of ZF Services, values the conversations held during Automechanika: ‘This event allows us to strengthen contacts with our existing customers, but also to approach potential users of our products and services. Our motto here is “Good, Fast, and Always Welcome“. The merger of ZF Trading and the Sales & Service Organization is the dominant topic of conversation with our wholesale partners. We are showing them, and our workshop partners, that we not only supply a comprehensive and always innovative range of original parts in our core product groups of chassis, powertrain and steering, but we also have the required high technical system competence rarely found elsewhere in the international aftermarket. This allows us to offer an attractive range of services for our products to increase the professionalism of market players.’

Further Informations: Press Kit Automechanika 2008

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