Teijin Ltd., the parent company of Continental Structural Plastics, is expanding its footprint into Central Europe with the acquisition of Benet Automotive s.r.o. of the Czech Republic.
The acquisition from Jet Investment was announced July 4. No other details were released.
Headquartered in Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic, Benet is a Tier 1 supplier of composite components to the automotive industry with three facilities in the Czech Republic and one in Germany to serve European automakers.
The company offers advanced technologies for carbon fiber-reinforced and glass fiber-reinforced plastic molding, as well as the painting and assembly of vehicles, to major carmakers, including Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW.
The acquisition is in line with Teijin's ambition to grow its automotive composites business with proprietary lightweight, high-performance materials. In Europe, Teijin acquired Inapal Plásticos SA, a leading automotive-composite supplier in Portugal, in August 2018; and is installing a glass- and carbon-fiber sheet molding compound (GF-SMC and CF-SMC) line in the French facility of Continental Structural Plastics.
Tokyo-based Teijin bought CSP, based in Auburn Hills, Mich., in 2017.
Teijin said in a news release that its aim is to become a "multi-material component supply partner of automotive OEM customers served by Teijin hubs in Europe, North America and Asia."
Acquiring Benet, strategically located near key European carmakers, will enhance Teijin's capabilities to offer innovative automotive composite solutions that meet customers' future needs for lightness, toughness, design flexibility, productivity and cost-effeteness, the company said.
Teijin is targeting automotive composite business sales of approximately €1.7 billion ($2 billion) by 2030.
The company had 720 employees and recorded sales of €35.2 million ($40 million) in fiscal 2018.