ZF Friedrichshafen AG

Aktivs

As of October 2017, ZF brings together about 230 manufacturing facilities in 40 countries around the world.

Business in Russia

ZF Friedrichshafen AG is represented in Russia by a subsidiary of ZF Russia LLC (Moscow and St. Petersburg) and a joint venture of ZF KAMA LLC (Naberezhnye Chelny).

History

2025: 7.6 thousand employees laid off

On October 1, 2025, the German company ZF Friedrichshafen AG, one of the world's largest manufacturers of auto components, announced a reorganization, during which about 7.6 thousand employees will lose their work. This measure is designed to improve the financial situation and reduce costs amid the crisis in the automotive sector.

The restructuring will affect the components division for electrified vehicles (Division E division). Employee layoffs will be part of a previously announced large-scale program, under which the number of ZF personnel in Germany will decrease by 14 thousand people. The company is struggling due to weak demand for electric vehicles and global trade tensions. In addition, ZF has a high debt burden associated with past acquisitions.

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Фото: mungfali.com

The reduction in jobs will be accompanied by a decrease in the duration of the working day. For Unit E employees in Germany and at the Schweinfurt and Friedrichshafen facilities in Unit Z (Administration, Research and Development), weekly working hours will be reduced by approximately 7% until the end of 2027. In addition, the company intends to postpone the increase in wages. This is expected to help reduce costs by more than €500 million by 2027. The reorganization plan also provides for the possibility of early retirement and severance pay for quitting employees.

Our task is to strengthen our position as a leading technology player in the market in the long term and significantly increase competitiveness. We understand that achieving this goal will entail a serious decrease in headcount, "says Mathias Miedreich, CEO of ZF.[1]

2020: Plan to lay off up to 15,000 workers

In May 2020, ZF Fridrichshafen, one of the largest manufacturers of automotive parts and components in Germany, announced its intention to lay off 12,000 to 15,000 of its employees, at least half of them will be Germans.

The total number of employees of the company at the end of 2019 was 147,797 people in more than 40 countries. Of these, about 51 thousand are in Germany, of which about 40 thousand participate in the state support scheme, designed to avoid layoffs during a pandemic.

"Our company will suffer heavy financial losses in 2020," warned ZF CEO Wolf-Hennig Scheider in a letter to employees, who also said that the company's revenues will be significantly lower than previously set goals for at least two years.

"These losses threaten our financial independence, and if we fail to meet certain cost targets, external lenders may require the ability to influence our business decisions," the letter said.

The company's management noted an improvement in demand indicators from China, but stressed that this is not enough to compensate for its fall in other regions. For ZF, the Chinese market represents only 20% of sales.

2019

Profit decline of 0.6 billion euros

In 2019, a decline in ZF's profit of 0.6 billion euros was recorded.

Buying Swiss brake maker Wabco for €7bn

In March 2019, ZF acquired Swiss brake manufacturer Wabco for 7 billion euros, for which it raised 4.8 billion euros in the capital market. For May 2020, the deal is still in the process of closing.