The Sky's the limit: the industry's number one sunroof maker brings innovative open air roof systems and other creative technologies to North America

Automotive Industries, July, 2004 by John Peter

Things are looking up for Webasto. The German-based manufacturer who sells about 1.5 million sunroofs in North America each year has added a new 205,000 sq.ft. manufacturing facility and encapsulation plant right next door to its existing 100,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant in Lexington, Ky.

The necessity for the new plant was driven by a contract with Mercedes Benz to build the Ultraview roof system for the Mercedes Benz E-Class and new Grand Sport Tourer, with a second full roof module for an, as yet, unnamed OEM coming on line next year.

"There is a trend in Europe to large fixed roofs, whether they are fixed or moveable," says Franz-Josef Kortum, chairman of the management board, Webasto AG. "And that trend is now coming to the U.S."

Less than a third of the new plant's floor space is filled with the machinery needed to build the Mercedes roof, but Fred D. Olsen. president and CEO says that will change soon as Webasto is scheduled to launch 12 new products in the next 18 months.

"Come back in a year and this building will be filled," Olsen says.

Webasto 7 (the new plant's designation; will also handle the overflow from Webasto 6 (next door). Webasto 6 builds standard sunroofs for Toyota, Ford, General Motors, GM China and the Chrysler PT Cruiser.

Nissan and Hyundai are Webasto's newest customers. Webasto has three new contracts with Nissan, the first starting in August of this year and a Hyundai sunroof line, that will be installed in the new facility in October, will be up and running by the end of the year.

Brett Healy, vice president Business Development says that Webasto is currently shipping a lot of sunroofs to GM Shanghai, but that will change with the opening of a Webasto facility in China in about two-and-a-half years.

Webasto 7 is currently producing some saleable builds for Mercedes but won't be up and running at full capacity (100,000 roofs a year in two shifts) until January of 2005.

Webasto has invested $28 million dollars in the new Lexington facility and will invest an additional $14 million in a new stamping plant in Murray, Ky., that will begin production later this year supplying roof stampings for Ford and GM.

Webasto, who built its first North American Facility in 1997, currently holds 42 percent of the North American sunroof market and expects that to jump to 47 percent by 2007 with the addition of the new contracts.

That puts the company well on its way to achieving half of its goal of 50 percent market share and 50 percent take rate by 2010. With a current take rate of only 27 percent, Webasto has taken on the unusual task of sitting in with the OEM's marketing departments recommending how they should sell the product and, ultimately grow the fitment rate.

"They're starting to expect and respect what we say," says Healy, "and we're seeing that move the meter as well."

Webasto is selling traditional sunroofs to all of the OEMs worldwide, but says that GM is the most aggressive customer in North America as far as introducing new and innovative products to the marketplace like the Ultraview full-glass roof for the Cadillac STX. Webasto says that it took a lot of work to convince GM to invest in the Ultraview roof because GM was convinced that it would only get a 30 percent take rate. The take rate has been closer to 70 percent.

Webasto builds the four-panel panoramic sunroof that's an option on the new Pontiac G6 and will also be an option on another GM vehicle. Based on a module designed for the Fiat Stillo, the panoramic sunroof folds back in three separate panels with the first panel lifting up as a wind deflector. The GM sunroof will be manufactured in the same Turin, Italy, facility, that does the Fiat module.

Healy says that with cars like the Pontiac G6, the traditional sunroof is not the wow option any more. "They're trying to create a differentiator with the new technology," Heady says. "You're going to see more of those coming."

Healy sees the pickup trucks as the one remaining market segment left for Webasto to conquer.

"It rely started with us breaking into Ford large pickup trucks (F 150) and has spiraled all the way through all its SUVs and large pick-ups," Healy says. Webasto will also supply the sunroof for the next generation Explorer.

"It will be hard to find a mid-size pickup without a sunroof option by 2007," says Healy.

With a firm grip on the sunroof market, Webasto is looking to expand into other areas.

"The biggest part of our growth strategy is convertibles," says Kortum.

"We don't do convertibles yet in North America," says Fred Olsen, president and CEO, "but we're in the hunt. We're working with our customers and our objective is to be producing convertibles, most likely the first one will be produced in this plant."

Webasto teamed up with Pinninfarina in 2002 to form Open Air Systems (OASYS).

"The strategy around OASYS was to take a major position in Europe and then very deliberately, as we gain that credibility, to spread it into the other markets," says Healy.

"Asia is now a success and the U.S. is our next focal point."