Stadco
Stadco is the UK's largest supplier of body-in-white pressings and sub-assemblies to automotive OEMs and a significant supplier of sub-assemblies in Germany. Pressings and sub-assemblies are the components which, when they are finally welded together by the OEM, make up a complete unpainted car body or body-in-white.
The division offers its OEM customers a comprehensive range of BIW services including:
- programme management and process engineering
- pressing
- sub-assembly
Stadco operates two distinct types of production sites: highly automated and high volume, such as Saarlouis which produces components for the Ford Focus; and lower volume, more manual sites like Coventry, where parts for Landrover and Aston Martin are produced.
Stadco produces sub-assemblies from pressings that it either presses itself or, in some cases, buys from third-party suppliers. In the case of the Saarlouis site, pressings are supplied directly by Ford on a free-issue basis.
Due to their exacting specifications and often awkward shapes, BIW sub-assemblies are expensive to transport and the location of manufacturing sites, particularly sub-assembly operations, close to OEM factories is important. This is exemplified in Saarlouis, where the sub-assemblies are transported directly to Ford's assembly line. Stadco has a number of facilities across the West Midlands, as well as a large facility in Germany, all located in close proximity to its OEM customers.
Growth
The volume of passenger cars made in the UK between 1995 and 2005 has been broadly stable at approximately 1.6 million per annum. However, the combined volumes of these models for which Stadco is currently a supplier has grown from 129,000 to 465,000 over this period.
