SKF Launches European Centre for Automobile Spare Parts

SKF is investing in new production facilities at the St-Cyr-sur-Loire site in France in order to streamline its EMEA automotive aftermarket activities. The move is in response to changing market dynamics, seeing growing demand for flexible production capabilities that can cope with ever shorter lead times.

In addition to concentrating all of SKF’s European automotive aftermarket activities at one site, St-Cyr-sur-Loire will also host a flexible new production facility dedicated to the production of wheel hub bearings for the spare parts market. This line will also be capable of responding very quickly to customer orders, especially smaller orders.

Commenting on the strategy, Bernd Stephan, President of SKF Automotive and Aerospace, says: “The creation of this European Centre will allow us to respond even faster to meet the expectations and needs of our customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and ensure that we can respond quickly to developments within those markets. At Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire we have now concentrated unrivalled levels of expertise and competence in the automotive aftermarket segment.”

Covering more than 30 hectares and employing 1,300 people, the Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire site is SKF’s largest facility in France. It produces 60 million bearings a year for the industrial, automobile and railway sectors, and is home to a special laboratory and test centre, which carries out extensive research and development activities for the SKF Group.