Today Hella Saturnus Slovenia is a part of the international manufacturing chain Hella Group and one of the largest Slovenian exporters. With approximately 1,900 employees, considerable experience in the development and manufacturing of automotive equipment - especially lighting parts - the company is a key and top quality parts supplier for many renowned automotive brands. It is also one of Slovenia's top exporters, with 91 percent of what it produces going to foreign countries.
The company had modest beginnings. It was founded as a small-scale workshop run by Emil Lajovic and started with the manufacture of tin boxes. Less than three years, later Saturnus employed more than 10 people and moved to a new factory. After the war and in the midst of the automotive revolution Saturnus found its way to this car industry. In the 1960s and 1970s the company signed some very important foreign automotive partners and started developing and manufacturing products for major European automotive brands, such as Renault, Simca, Citroen, Peugeot and Volkswagen.
According to Christof Droste, managing director of Hella Saturnus Slovenia, the company's philosophy is simple: to be the best in class in Slovenia: "We want to lead with innovative products, processes and services and therefore stay an extremely competitive location inside the Hella Network," he explains. "Our investment plan is to inject another 60 million euros into our research, development and production of automotive headlights and fog lights in the next five years."
The Hella Group has already entrusted Hella Saturnus Slovenia with a role as the world competence centre for the development and production of additional headlamps for new vehicles. So the star of Slovenian automotive industry will shine even more in the future.