Draft:Kostal Group

KOSTAL Group
The KOSTAL Group is a globally active, independent, family-owned company headquartered in Germany that develops and produces electronic and mechatronic products. The head office is located in Lüdenscheid. More than 19,000 employees work at 53 locations in 20 countries. Its customers include major industrial companies, in particular all car manufacturers and their suppliers as well as companies from the photovoltaic sector.

History
Kostal was founded in 1912 by Leopold Kostal as LK. In 1927, the field of activity was expanded from installation materials to automotive electronics. In 1935, Leopold's son Kurt joined the company, and by the time Kostal celebrated its 25th anniversary, it had around 240 employees. In 1953, the company's focus shifted to the development and production of articles for the automotive industry. Helmut Kostal joined the company in 1972, the first foreign branch was founded in Mexico in 1973, followed by a branch in Brazil in 1978. After the transformation into a GmbH & Co KG in 1981 the company expanded into other countries in the following years, including Ireland, the UK, Japan, China and France. [1] In 1993, and in 1995, the divisions of automotive electrics, industrial electrics and testing technology were established, which were transferred to an independent GmbH in 2004. In 2008, Kostal entered the Indian market with the help of a joint venture and entered the solar technology market in 2009. Since 2011, the company has been managed by Andreas Kostal.[2] On October 10, 2016, production began at a further site in North Macedonia.

Kostal Automotive Electrics
In the Automotive Electrics division, Kostal develops and produces products for vehicles. This division is divided into four departments:
 * Comfort Electronics (control units, in particular door control units, seat control units and tailgate control units)
 * Power Electronics (chargers and converters, in particular onboard chargers, on-board power converters and charging control units)
 * Comfort Controls (control elements in the vehicle interior, such as steering wheel switches, light switches, window regulators, seat adjusters, climate control units, driving mode switches, etc. and roof modules, such as interior lighting, sunroof controls, etc. and also motion sensors, interior cameras, climate sensors, microphones, etc. and rain/light sensors)
 * Drive Controls (steering column modules and selector lever)

In July 2022, it was announced that all German production sites of the Kostal Automotive Electrics (KAE) division are to be closed by the end of 2024. This affects the administration and production including plastics processing in Lüdenscheid with approx. 650 employees. The sites in Meinerzhagen (approx. 90 employees) and in Halver (approx. 60 employees) will be closed completely. Production is distributed across the global sites. Contrary to the announcement in June 2022, the plant in Halver was closed at the end of 2022. The employees were distributed to the nearby sites in Meinerzhagen and Lüdenscheid. The plant in Meinerzhagen is to remain open until at least the end of 2026. The background to this is that camera and sensor modules for vehicle environment recognition are produced there under clean room conditions. Audi in particular uses these modules for its driver assistance systems and has campaigned for the Meinerzhagen site to be retained.

Kostal Contact Systems
The core business of KOSTAL Kontakt Systeme GmbH & Co KG is the development, production and sale of connector systems for the automotive industry. KOSTAL Kontakt Systeme is present at nine locations in eight countries with over 1,400 employees and counts all the world's leading automotive companies among its customers.

Kostal Industrie Elektrik
With the founding of KOSTAL Industrie Elektrik in 1995 under the umbrella of the KOSTAL Group, the framework conditions were created to make the know-how from the automotive sector available to other markets such as drive technology. At the Hagen site, over 500 employees work in development, production and administration. At the end of 2006, the subsidiary KOSTAL Solar Electric GmbH was founded in Freiburg i. Br. It serves as a sales company for photovoltaic inverters of the PIKO brand (Photovoltaic Inverter Kostal). KOSTAL Industrie Elektrik develops and produces solutions in the product fields of photovoltaics, drive technology and measurement and control electronics, which are geared towards the generation of renewable energy and the efficient use of energy. The Industrial Electrics division is divided into three areas:
 * Power electronics
 * Drive technology
 * Photovoltaics

Kostal Solar Electric
KOSTAL Solar Electric was founded in 2006 as a separate branch of the KOSTAL Group and since then has stood for energy generation and utilization. KOSTAL in Hagen is the German headquarters of the parent company KOSTAL Industrie Elektrik, while KOSTAL Solar Electric has established its German headquarters in Freiburg im Breisgau. Kostal Solar Elektrik's products include various inverters and storage systems.

SOMA
Testing, automation, dosing: these are the three core product areas of SOMA GmbH. As a system supplier, SOMA has been offering its customers testing and automation systems for mechatronic and electronic products for over 40 years. In 2009, SOMA expanded its range of services to include components and systems for the handling and reliable dispensing of industrial lubricants.

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