New products, new production line, enhanced sustainability

"Effective, customisable and sustainable – that's what we expect from the sun protection solutions of the future," explains HELLA Group CEO and Managing Partner Andreas Kraler. The company's new slat roof delivers exactly this. A modular solution, it can be enhanced with glass elements to protect all types of outdoor area optimally against excessive sunlight, wind and rain. Developed in collaboration with a prominent design studio, the pergola also comes with the option of photovoltaic elements that can be fitted on the slats. The new model can be integrated seamlessly with walls of different types or installed free-standing. It includes clever features to simply inspection and repair too to ensure a long useful life. The product launch event will take place in Stuttgart in a few weeks' time.

As a glance at current market trends will confirm, products of this type are very much coming into their own. The upturn in the construction industry should impact positively on the sun protection sector in 2026 as well, with forecasts particularly promising for the outdoor living segment. The popularity of additional open-air living area is expected to continue to grow as private leisure spaces such as terraces and gardens become an increasingly meaningful status symbol. Forecasts indicate market growth of between four percent (IMARC) and approximately 13 percent (MarketGrowthReports). Public awareness of climate change and environmental protection imperatives is also expected to increase further, making versatile and long-lasting (and thus sustainable) sun protection solutions such as slat roofs all the more attractive – especially when they include the option of integral PV modules.

Recent strategic decision-making at HELLA has been significantly influenced by this positive backdrop as well as by the company's position as a premium full-service provider and its lived commitment to economic, social and environmental sustainability, which stretches back several decades. HELLA is investing strategically not just in product innovations, but also in its sites. In Werne, Germany, it is expanding its production and logistics footprints by almost 35 percent in 2026 and investing around one million euros in the existing production facility. This will create the capacity the company needs to manufacture the new slat roof and enable it to produce even more textile façade products in the future to reduce lead and delivery times and keep pace with demand, which is also rising in the outdoor shade systems segment.

HELLA is committed to further reducing its environmental impact. The company's headquarters site in Abfaltersbach in Austria's East Tyrol region, for example, already generates more energy than it uses. HELLA intends to invest in its energy infrastructure once again in 2026 to ensure its principal facility remains self-sufficient for energy. The Geislingen site in Germany is in line for further investment too. Here, the sun protection specialist will be investing around 1.5 million euros in a roof modernisation project that includes the installation of a photovoltaic system capable of producing more than a third of the energy required by the site. The company is steadily rolling the "Save energy, generate energy, store energy" principle initially defined at headquarters out to its other sites. The most recent measures continuing this process underline HELLA's firm commitment to the initiative.

"The last few years have yielded challenge after challenge for the construction industry and its suppliers," says Kraler in summary, "which makes it more important than ever that we look forward with optimism and continue to be far-sighted in our investment activities so that our company is able to reap the benefits of the opportunities now coming into view."