The Mahle Group said it last month acquired all the shares in the former joint venture Behr Thermot-tronik Italia (BTTI) now renamed Mahle Behr Grugliasco.
Former shareholders were Mahle Behr Kornwestheim and Valtri.
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Based in Grugliasco, near Turin in northern Italy, the company develops and produces a range of thermostat products for use in all vehicle classes.
The employment contracts of the current 120 employees are expected to remain unchanged and no physical relocations are planned.
We are delighted that the employees of BTTI will now belong fully to Mahle. Their skills and experience will secure the successful development of Mahle Behr Grugliasco," said Bernd Eckl who heads the thermal management business unit.
BTTI products are already integrated into the parent company's range.
As a result of the acquisition, the thermostat specialist will now benefit fully from the systems and global network of the parent's supplier group.
"It was important to offer employees long-term, future-oriented prospects. We believe that Mahle's acquisition offers the best opportunity for BTTI to continue developing successfully," said Franco Triberti, representative of the former shareholder family.
Mahle is expanding its thermal management product line. It said efficient thermal management is becoming increasingly important, irrespective of the powertrain configuration. In internal combustion drives, the cooling system plays an important part in making vehicles even more efficient. For electric vehicles, the economical use of hot and cold flows is the basis for performance, cruising range, and service life.
Behr Thermot-tronik Italia was created in 1997 from Behr Thomson Italia. Since it was founded, the joint venture has worked closely with Behr Thermot-tronik's other entities. These have already been fully integrated in the group for some time as part of Mahle's majority acquisition of Behr in 2013.
