Volkswagen Group recognises 18 best suppliers

Earlier this month, the Volkswagen Group recognized its best suppliers component suppliers with the ‘Volkswagen Group Award 2014’. Prof. Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, and Dr Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz, member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG with responsibility for Procurement, presented the awards to 18 of the Group's top suppliers during an event at the Leipzig Porsche plant attended by about 250 guests from 28 countries.

"Our Volkswagen Group Award is like a small automotive world championship. Our award winners are among the best in the world. Together with our suppliers, we are working on ground-breaking technologies and innovations of a sustained high quality," said Winterkorn.

Taking a look at the future, he added: "The automobile industry is facing fundamental upheavals. We are not only taking up the challenges of the future but are also a motor for the mobility of the future. For this purpose, we are raising our partnership with suppliers to an entirely new level."

Growing digitalisation, increasing differentiation in customers' wishes globally and changing expectations for individual mobility pose entirely new challenges for the automobile industry. With its ‘Future Tracks’ program, the Volkswagen Group says it is addressing the future issues of the industry and laying the foundation for a long-term strategy going beyond 2018.

Garcia Sanz thanked the suppliers for their outstanding performance in a spirit of partnership. "The successes of the Volkswagen Group are only possible with strong partners. In order to shape the future with our supplier network, we will be cooperating even more closely and at an even earlier stage with our most important partners on the strategic topics of globalisation and innovation with our new initiative ‘Volkswagen FAST – Future Automotive Supply Tracks'. We will link our global plans even faster and implement further innovations together."