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News of April 30, 2002

Hella and Sate-Lite Form JV in China

PLYMOUTH, Mich. - German automotive supplier Hella KG Hueck & Co. and American Sate-Lite Manufacturing Company, headquartered in Niles, Illinois, have formed a 50-50 joint venture to produce lighting for bicycles and motorcycles in China.

The new company, Sate-Lite Bike Lighting (Shunde) Co., Ltd., will be headquartered in Shunde in the People's Republic of China.

Sate-Lite, which is the U.S. market leader for cycle reflectors, has been operating in Shunde since 1997. Hella, which produces cycle lighting at its Hella Bike business unit in Salo, Finland, will move these operations to Shunde.

A 23,000-square-foot expansion, scheduled for completion in December 2002, is underway to house the joint venture's operations at the current Sate-Lite factory in Shunde. Sate-Lite will continue to operate its existing company as a separate entity.

"The joint venture will put us in a better position to serve the worldwide market for cycle lighting," said Werner Boekels, who is responsible for Hella Bike.

In the joint venture, front lighting, lamps and reflectors will be manufactured under cost-optimized conditions. Hella's corporate headquarters in Lippstadt initially will be responsible for product development, though this activity will be transferred to Shunde later this year.

Engineers in the new joint venture can take advantage of Hella's position as the world's leading manufacturer of vehicle lighting and apply the latest automotive lighting technology for greater cycle safety. The Hella RL 980A series rear lamp, for example, has two wide-angle LEDs using an integrated pattern, which projects light forward and also sideways and upward to make it easier for truck and bus drivers to see a cyclist in their path.

Previously, Hella Bike was part of the Hella Group's Finland Oy subsidiary, with 270 employees and sales of nearly $30 million in the 2000- 2001 fiscal year, producing signal lamps, warning triangles, rear reflectors and accessories for the automotive industry.

Another newly founded company, Hella Bike Europe GmbH, based in Nellingen, Germany, will take over sales of Hella cycle lighting on June 1, 2002. Customers include renowned cycle manufacturers such as Derby-Cycle, Winora- Staiger, Hercules and Steppenwolf; wholesalers such as Hartje, Epple and BBF, and the purchasing company Bico.

With the rapid growth of bicycle manufacturing in Asia, Sate-Lite moved its bicycle reflector and related products manufacturing to Sate-Lite (Shunde) Plastics Company Ltd., in Shunde, Guangdong, China.

Operating since 1998, the Shunde factory has firmly established Sate-Lite as a high-quality "local supplier" to the China-based bicycle manufacturing industry. In the past two years, production has expanded to include highway safety and transportation reflectors, as well as custom-molded products. Sate-Lite (Shunde) currently operates in a 16,000-square-foot building and employs 200 production and staff workers.

(April 29, 2002)

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