GG Group - Gebauer & Griller Kabelwerke Gesellschaft m.b.H.

Coming from the peak in 2017 with over ninety-five million vehicles, the yearly vehicle production decreased to ca. seventy-five million worldwide in 2020. By 2022 the market recovered insignificantly due to several crises. In addition to this volume effect, other factors such as volatility in demand and increased factor costs also put pressure on suppliers' margins.

The GG Group faced the following challenge in autumn of 2022: a continuation of the downward trend would lead to liquidity falling below the minimum liquidity level agreed with the banks within 12 months. This marked the birth of the “Transform to Perform” (P2T) program, which was launched in February 2023 following an in-depth analysis of the status and potential. By March 31, 2025 (end of fiscal year), the ambitious target for annual savings had been exceeded by two-thirds, and the cash conversion cycle had also been significantly reduced by one-third.

The selected starting points and associated workstreams related to the improvement of the TOPLINE, a targeted reduction of production costs, continuous optimization in purchasing, improvement of the performance in the plants and increase of efficiency in the overhead of the group and the plants.

The portfolio optimization posed a priority project in the transformation, especially in “wires”. Products that no longer contributed to the strategic alignment or the profitability were consequently removed from the product range. In sum, the portfolio was reduced by one third, which however makes up only 5% of the sales volume. The reduced complexity and the accompanying positive influence on the income statement is significant.

Additionally, four focus topics with global alignment were set up in Manufacturing Engineering: optimization, standardization of the business processes and value streams, digital manufacturing engineering, technical solutions & methods. Success quickly became apparent regarding CapEx, start-up costs and productivity.

The individual sites have, under consideration of their new positioning within the Footprint Roadmap 2030, started their own improvement programs – with grand success for customers and the company. In cooperation with the supply chain management the delivery reliability could be increased and the working capital decreased significantly at the same time.

In the meantime, the program organization has been dissolved, the existing tasks have been transferred to the line, and improvement measures are now being consolidated and monitored in the established Transformation Project Office (TPO). This was possible thanks to what has been achieved so far and the fact that the continuous improvement process (CIP) has already become part of the company's DNA. The jury is convinced that GG Group, with its “Power of Network,” has created the conditions necessary to master future challenges as well.

For this reason, GG Group is receiving the “Special Award: Rapid Transformation” for the year 2025. Congratulations!

GG Group (Gebauer & Griller Kabelwerke Gesellschaft m.g.H.) is an internationally operating, family-owned Austrian company headquartered in Vienna, which specializes in high quality cable – and wiring systems – especially for automotive and industrial applications. The GG Group operates production and development sites worldwide, including Austria, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria, Mexico and China, as well as sales offices in the USA, Austria, and China. Their product portfolio incorporates innovative cable – and wiring systems for the automotive industry – e.g. for e-mobility, connected mobility and autonomous driving – as well as special solutions for industrial applications like wind power, robotics, plant engineering and agricultural engineering.