Huf Romania S.R.L. in Arad and Timisoara at automotive hotspot

“When the General Manager of Huf Romania S.R.L. came to me for the first time, there still wasn’t so much as an office. We had our first meetings in my living room,” recalls Simona Benea. She became the first employee of Huf Romania S.R.L. in 2006 and has built up the Human Resources department ever since. She never had to invite applicants into her living room, as not long after she had welcomed the high-ranking visitor to her home, Huf acquired its factory in Arad in western Romania.

Huf Romania S.R.L. at the hotspot of automotive industry

“The first automotive suppliers began to settle in Romania, and Arad in particular, in the late 1990s, shortly after Renault had bought the Dacia brand,” explains Simona Benea. “The region’s advantages are plain to see. Arad is an industrial city with highly skilled people. It also has excellent infrastructure, which is very important in Romania. Arad is regarded as a gateway to the West and is easily accessible from the freeway and by rail; it also has an international airport.”

A number of other factors influenced the decision to choose this strategically important location, such as low labor costs and the opportunity to continue a long-standing company tradition. Not only does Huf supply its customers with first-class products that meet the very highest standards of quality, but it was well ahead of the curve relative to other automotive suppliers in operating close to where its customers were located, with geographical proximity making it a dependable partner capable of offering short response times and effective services.

Automotive companies focus on Romania and Hungary for subsidiaries

Huf Romania S.R.L. was officially entered on the company register on May 25, 2006. In the years that followed, Romania rapidly flourished to become a hotspot for the automotive industry. In addition to Dacia, which has a factory in Pitesti that Renault has invested heavily in expanding, Ford has a production facility in Romania. The US manufacturer acquired the factory in Craiova in southern Romania from Daewoo in 2008, and the first Ford B-Max rolled off the assembly line there in summer 2012. Mercedes-Benz has operated in Romania since 2001 and got at two sites at Sebes and Cugir. 

With their presence in Romania, the major car manufacturers enormously contributed to the development of the entire country and thereby also to the fast upgrades to infrastructure. Mercedes benefits from the extensive network in a very direct way because their Kecskemét plant in Hungary is not far from the Romanian border. There, Mercedes produces A-Class, B-Class, CLA sedan, and CLA Shooting Brake vehicles. Audi, meanwhile, produces almost all versions of the top-selling A3 compact car as well as the Coupé and Roadster variations of its TT compact sports car in their factory in Györ. BMW just started the series production of the new BMW iX3 at the new BMW Group Plant Debrecen in Hungary.

Huf factory in Arad applying the latest production standards

The cities Arad and Timisoara next to the border are located at the epicenter of a cluster of eastern European branches of global car manufacturers. That means that Huf has taken up a strategically important position on the map.

Huf has quickly grown into an established institution in the region. Following the plant opening in July 2006, the young team initially manufactured glove compartment latches for the BMW 3 Series Coupé (E93). A successful customer audit that November attested to the factory’s high production quality and laid the foundations for rapid growth. Additional orders followed very soon. The first production line for lock sets was set up in March 2008, underlining the urgent need for more space. Just four months later, Huf Romania S.R.L. acquired a 22,000 square meter plot of land on the northwestern outskirts of Arad. Due to the economic crisis in Romania in 2009, construction work did not start until 2011. At the opening in 2012, around 200 employees worked at the new plant Huf Arad. Today, the number of employees has more than tripled and will continue to grow. More qualified employees are needed to operate the new production lines at Huf Arad.

The workers in Arad have taken the principles of lean production to heart and follow them systematically in their work. This is evident in many areas, including agile shop floor management. Every day, each shift team gathers for a brief meeting to discuss details of assignments, any abnormalities or problem areas that have cropped up and new ideas for helping to move production forward.

From steady growth to strategic evolution 

Technical Center Romania (TCR) has evolved into a key engineering hub, supporting the full development cycle of automotive projects. Initially focused on specific work package tasks, TCR has progressively expanded its scope to cover complete projects. This transformation reflects its growing expertise and integration within the global development network. Today, TCR plays a central role in end-to-end project execution, from concept and design to validation and industrialization. Its functions span across multiple domains, including mechanical engineering, electronics, software development, testing and validation, and project management.

In addition to its engineering capabilities, TCR also hosts the Global Shared Services Center, which provides centralized financial support for all Huf locations worldwide.