SaarGummi

SaarGummi Group is a leading supplier of car body sealing systems for the automotive industry and operates from a management holding in Schengen, Luxemburg. It has operations in Germany, Spain, The Czech Republic, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. The group holds a leading market position in Europe and is the market leader in South America. SSVP initiated an aggressive turnaround program that included the complete replacement of the first and of most of the second level management. In February 2005, the severely loss making plant in Magog, Canada, was sold to competitor GDX together with a small SaarGummi operation in Mexico. Shortly afterwards, ElaTech Group, a small but rising competitor, was acquired with its two plants in Germany. ElaTech added 40 million € in sales to SaarGummi. In October 2005, ContiTech Profile, a larger competitor with 70 million € in sales, was acquired from German Continental AG in a “prepackaged restructuring“ that included the shutdown of ContiTech's German factory and the transfer of its production volume to mostly Eastern Europe. SaarGummi was acquired from German energy conglomerate RAG Group in September 2004 and sold to a financial investor in 2007.