Webasto, market leader for roof systems and parking heaters, opened its new Russian sales and service center on June 27, 2017 in Lobnya (Moscow Oblast). At the official opening ceremony Dr. Holger Engelmann, Chairman of the Management Board, Webasto SE, explained: “As a classic cold market, Russia is of strategic importance for us. We have had our own subsidiary there since 2000. By moving from Moscow’s city center to our new building complex in the north of the capital we are now significantly expanding our presence.” The new Russian Thermo headquarters extends over an area of 4,000 square meters and includes an administration area, training rooms, assembly space and two garages. Webasto has invested a total of some 10 million euro in the new location.

 

 

From Lobnya, Webasto will supply the Russian factories of automotive manufacturers with heating systems for installation as original equipment. Furthermore, from here the company will in future also supply its four distribution sites in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk, as well as over 60 dealers and some 500 garages throughout the country with parking heathers for retrofit applications. In the garages in Lobnya, Webasto retrofits parking heaters into passenger cars as well as commercial and special vehicles. Initially, the new capacities in the production area will be used primarily for the final assembly of water heaters of the Thermo Top Evo range.

The quality and reliability of Webasto heating systems have been highly valued in Russia for decades. “Our parking heaters are so well known in this country that in Russia the term ‘parking heater’ has simply become synonymous with ‘Webasto’”, emphasized Engelmann. The demand for these products remains strong and Webasto foresees excellent growth potential here in future. “The transport infrastructure in Lobnya offers a very good starting point for further expanding our Russian business,” commented Engelmann.

Some 150 customers and partners, together with representatives from politics and administration, celebrated the opening of the Lobnya site with Webasto. The Russian and German guests included, among others, the mayor of the town of Lobnya, Evgeni Smyschljaew, the Head of the Department of Economic and Science at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Russian Federation, Thomas Graf, and the Executive Chairman of the German/Russian Foreign Chamber of Trade, Matthias Schepp.

Original publication