He said that engineers will be largely spared the cuts that are taking place subsequent to the Siemens VDO acquisition late last year.

In a speech to the on Jan. 29, he commented that redundancies would mainly be limited to management roles in areas that Conti and VDO had produced the same components. “We’ll address many of those positions in the next 45 to 60 days," he said. "But you won’t see cut backs in engineering; we are still hiring more engineers."

Kozyra also reiterated Conti’s commitment to its ever more diverse product portfolio. "We couldn’t just ride on our tyre business," he said. "Just about every vehicle on the road today is outfitted with some Continental product – like tyres, a chassis or power train component, safety electronic or telematics." (Tyres & Accessories/Staffordshire, U.K.)