With the opening of its plant in Chennai, India, the HENN Connector Group has set a significant milestone in its internationalization strategy.

The Austrian company has invested around one million euros in the modern assembly plant. From March 2025, HENN will be supplying high-quality plastic couplings to the first major car manufacturers in the Indo-Pacific market from this location. “India is a key growth market for us, and with the new location in Chennai we are creating the conditions to offer our customers in the region the best possible service and highest quality. At the same time, this is an important step towards localizing our production and making it more efficient,” explains Martin Ohneberg, owner and CEO of the HENN Connector Group.

Chennai: A location with potential

Chennai is considered one of the most important centers of the automotive industry in India. The good infrastructure, proximity to key customers and the strategic location of the city with over five million inhabitants make it an ideal starting point for the expansion of the HENN Connector Group’s activities in the region. The new plant covers a production area of over 1,500 m² and currently employs around a dozen people. In the medium term, the plan is to expand the workforce to over 100 employees in order to meet the growing demand.

HENN has also established an engineering office in Pune. The region is characterized by a large supply of highly qualified engineers – ideal conditions for HENN’s development work in India.

Grand opening with high-ranking guests

At the opening ceremony on January 15, 2025, HENN Group CEO Martin Ohneberg and Sharath Sreekumar, Managing Director Indo Pacific, welcomed around 100 guests from business and politics. Among those present were Austrian Ambassador Katharina Wieser, Tamil Nadu Economic Affairs Minister Tha Mo Anbarasan and Deputy Economic Affairs Delegate Kerstin Peckl.

Despite Challenges: HENN Connector Group Drives Internationalization Forward

The HENN Connector Group reflects on a challenging yet dynamic year in 2024. Despite difficult market conditions in Europe, strong cost pressures, and a highly uncertain global geopolitical situation, the company has continued to advance its strategic goals. With revenue of €158 million, the group maintained the previous year’s revenue level and remains focused on transformation and geographic expansion. “In the future, the global localization of production will be a decisive success factor. Particularly in Europe, massively increased location costs have temporarily moved it onto the ‘breakdown lane’ and, unfortunately, somewhat off the fast lane,” explains Martin Ohneberg, owner and Group CEO.

Internationalization and Innovation as Growth Drivers

A key focus of the past year was further internationalization. The opening of new locations on January 15, 2024, in India (assembly plant in Chennai and technical center in Pune) marked a milestone in accessing the Indo-Pacific market. Expansion into Mexico is planned for the first half of 2025, while the location in China is being further developed. These steps emphasize the strategic importance of these growing markets for the company.
In addition to internationalization, HENN was once again recognized as a “Great Place to Work” and was nominated for the Austrian State Prize for Innovation.

Automotive: Growth Despite Challenges

The Automotive division exceeded expectations despite overall uncertainties, surpassing the €100 million revenue mark. International growth was particularly strong: revenue in the USA/Mexico increased by an impressive 26%, and in Korea by 18% compared to 2023. In contrast, Europe experienced a decline of around 10%. Extremely positive feedback from customers on new developments in the electromobility sector highlights future potential. Initial large orders from global customers in the New Mobility segment affirm this path. However, the outlook remains cautious: “With our modular and innovative product portfolio, we are very well-positioned. However, the global economic and geopolitical uncertainties present challenges,” says CEO Matthias Nicolussi.

Non-Automotive: A Difficult Year with Bright Spots

The Non-Automotive sector, represented primarily by the German subsidiary EISELE, performed surprisingly weaker than the Automotive sector in 2024. A strong focus on the German market and dependency on plant engineering led to a revenue decline of nearly 9% compared to the previous year. Nonetheless, EISELE managed to hold its ground reasonably well in a competitive environment. “Our strategic efforts to expand sales globally are showing initial successes in relevant markets, despite ongoing challenges in Germany. This gives us confidence for the coming years,” says Johannes Jeitler, CEO of EISELE.

HENNgineered: Successful Diversification of Technologies

The HENNgineered division—an innovative manufacturing service provider—exhibited mixed performance across its various business areas. Medium-term expectations include benefiting from consolidation in the injection molding sector. Division CEO Christoph Jandl states: “Economic conditions continue to challenge us. Nevertheless, we have deliberately invested in new manufacturing technologies, including 3D printing and machining, to strengthen our position. These investments form the basis for positive developments in incoming orders.”

Outlook for 2025: Focus on Growth Markets and Innovations

“The opportunities for 2025 lie in consistent transformation, localization of production, partial organizational adjustments, and digitalization. Managing this amid global uncertainties, including potential additional trade conflicts and unfavorable location costs in Europe, remains challenging.

However, we remain cautiously optimistic for the coming months because we are purposefully investing in future-oriented topics that provide us with both stability and growth prospects. This lays the foundation for sustainable growth,” says owner and Group CEO Martin Ohneberg.

Leadership expert and organizational consultant Nathalie Karré talks to exceptional leaders about their career paths, their challenges on the job and their secrets to success. Episode 1: Martin Ohneberg – How to manage growth. Click here for the episode.

Martin Ohneberg, CEO HENN Connector Group, has led the way. Even at a young age he wanted to become an entrepreneur, and he has fulfilled this dream with determination and hard work. In an interview with Nathalie Karré, he talks about how he manages growth and why participative and transparent corporate culture is so important.

Plastic molding specialist TKW Molding – a subsidiary of the HENN Connector Group – is expanding its manufacturing capacity in Asia. In order to meet the increasing demand for innovative injection molded components, the HENN Connector Group commissioned a new plant in China at the end of September. Both European OEMs and Chinese companies will thus be supplied even faster in the future.

Regardless of whether it is a gasoline engine, hybrid or electric vehicle: every car needs to be cooled. With 200 patents, the HENN Connector Group, which specializes in quick couplings for charge air and cooling water systems, is one of the innovation drivers in the automotive sector – its quick couplings are installed in almost all OEMs in the automotive industry worldwide. Now the HENN Connector Group is pushing ahead with its growth by opening a new production site in China. “This is a very important market for us,” comments CEO Martin Ohneberg on the plant opening in Taicang near Shanghai. “Many of our customers produce in the country and have previously imported our products. With the construction of the new production facility, transport routes and thus delivery times will be significantly shortened.” For HENN subsidiary TKW Molding, which operates the plant, however, the decision was not just a question of customer proximity and efficiency. The company is also facing up to its ecological responsibility, because local manufacturing (local-for-local) is becoming increasingly important in times of climate change. “Thanks to the short and efficient logistics routes and state-of-the-art buildings and production technologies at our new site, we are significantly reducing our carbon footprint,” says Ohneberg.

The plant in China is 4,000 square meters in size and is equipped with state-of-the-art technologies in the areas of production and measurement technology. These include fully automated injection molding processes, assembly and hot plate welding technology including functional testing, and laser marking. The plastic parts of the proven HENN fasteners as well as brake fluid and cleaning containers for the automotive industry and complex technical plastic injection molded parts are produced on the tools and equipment of local partners. Production is carried out according to the European standards IATF 16949:2016, ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2011 in the usual brand quality of the HENN Connector Group.

In addition to the automotive sector, the HENN Connector Group will focus on other target markets in the future. The new production site has the necessary growth potential and thus enables greater diversification.

The mobility of tomorrow must function globally, be affordable and reliably emission-neutral. Equipped with this mandate, the OBRIST Group from Lustenau in Vorarlberg built ten prototype vehicles – among others for the Federal Ministry of Education & Science Germany. These vehicles are equipped with a HyperHybrid® Powertrain, whose actual CO2 emissions are negative! In figures, this means an incredible -24g CO2 per kilometer driven! This is made possible by a patented emissions-negative synthetic fuel called aFuel®, which is used exclusively to generate electricity for the battery.

HENN supports this technology with a total of 198 connectors in the vehicles.

Ten HC.Water connectors, together with four HC.Fluid P plastic connectors, provide cooling for the battery. In addition, two HC.Water are responsible for cooling the electronics in the front of the vehicle.

Two custom-made nozzles using the metal 3D printing process were installed to allow the cooling lines to be routed through the floor panel.

Here, HENN draws on technologies proven millions of times over (HC.Water, HC.Fluid P) from production vehicles (hybrid vehicles, battery-electric vehicles and classic vehicles) in combination with fast and precise manufacturing capabilities of metal 3D printed parts.

“The combination of connectors that are readily available and have been proven a million times over and HENN’s expertise and speed in prototyping and small series production are excellent prerequisites for the development of pioneering mobility solutions,” said Frank Obrist, founder and CEO of the OBRIST Group.

Martin Ohneberg, CEO and owner of HENN is enthusiastic and hopes that the HyperHybrid® solution can soon be applied in HENN’s corporate fleet.

HENN is capable to develop, produce and validate or products for aerospace according to RTCA DO-160G.

HENN is now approved for:

1. EASA Part J: Design engineering and data management with an EASA Part J environment for both EASA and the UK CAA.

2. EASA Part G: Production engineering for test articles and post-test approval production assemblies with approval on EASA level conformity control, facility approval for manufacturing.

3. EASA Part J/G: Test approval for management or and actioning of testing.

4. EASA Part J/G: Approval of DOA level test equipment and test facilities.

The globally active HENN Connector Group continues its growth course. In the previous year, CEO and owner Martin Ohneberg and his team were able to lead the group to the top of the industry through acquisitions in Germany, the USA and China. As of June 1, 2022, the Austrian company will take over the German VMR GmbH & co KG in Baden-Württemberg with a turnover of around 10 million euros and more than 70 employees, a specialist in the 3D printing of complex prototypes made of plastic and metal and in the production of tools. The worldwide HENN Family thus grows to more than 500 employees.

In the previous year, the HENN Connector Group increased sales by 45 percent to 125 million euros. The focus is on innovative connector components that play an important role in our lives – from mobility and medical technology to aviation and building technology.

We are pleased to announce HENN Connector Group’s participation in the Battery Show and Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo and cordially invite you to attend.

The show will be held in Novi, Michigan (USA) from September 13th to 15th, 2022.

Each year, engineers, innovators and pioneers gather in Novi for a conference and trade show focused on keeping pace with the fast-moving battery and automotive industries.

We look forward to seeing you at our booth #344.

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From March to October, the editorial team of Austrian Roadmap 2050 selects three decision-makers who, in their opinion, demonstrate achievements worthy of special mention.

Vote here

How Martin Ohneberg from Vorarlberg realized a lifelong goal by building the Henn Connector Group and went from manager to entrepreneur and owner of an industrial group.

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We, the HENN Industrial Group GmbH & Co KG and our strong partner MARK Metallwarenfabrik GmbH, are setting out for new shores – and taking the innovation path together.

In an “open strategy” initiative we rely on the contributions of our employees, but also on the valuable contributions of subject matter experts.

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