ZF Great Britain - part of the ZF group of companies
ZF Great Britain Ltd (ZFGB) was founded in 1973 as a Sales and Service subsidiary of ZF Friedrichshafen AG (ZF AG). ZF AG is the 13th largest automotive supplier in the World, with an annual turnover of over €9 billion and operations in over 25 countries across the world.
The ZF Group
Manufacturing in 1960
ZF factory in 1955
ZF AG was established in the early 1900´s by Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, the inventor of the famous airships. It was when Count Zeppelin began searching for a streamlined propulsion system that the ZF group was born. His technological ideas were just that ideas! There was no existing engineering company to give his vision life.
Count Zeppelin being a resourceful man, set about creating manufacturing companies that would produce the streamlined propulsion systems for his beloved airships. One of these companies was the ˜Zahnradfabrik˜ or ˜gear wheel maker˜ which produced the early transmissions.
Over the years ZF has grown into a worldwide organisation, and manufacturing bases can be found across the continents, Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australasia. In order to support the ever increasing demand for ZF products, ZFGB was constructed and opened its doors to the world in 1974. More information on the ZF Group can be found at www.zf.com
ZF Great Britain Ltd
ZFGB are accountable for product sales and support across the UK and Ireland. We are responsible for automatic, manual and continuously variable transmissions; axels and axel systems; steering applications including power steering pumps and fly-by-wire
systems; industrial transmissions including those for motion control,
machine tools and tension control; materials handling transmissions and
electric drive units.
Our new location today
ZF Great Britain in 1974
Our markets
ZFGB works in conjunction with both the Original Equipment market and the Aftermarket customer. We have highly qualified engineers stationed at Jaguar and BMW production plants amongst others, who are on-hand to provide production line support to the customer.
Like the OE market, our aftermarket support is unparalleled. The sheer diversity and number of ZF products in the market could prove overwhelming to some but not to ZFGB. To illustrate, there are approximately 500,000 ZF automatic transmissions in cars in the UK alone! In the Bus & Coach sectors there are around 13 - 15,000 ZF Ecomat type transmissions in the UK with more added every year.
ZFGB - The company
In order to support the market and the group, ZFGB are divided into 4 primary divisions:
Commercial Vehicle
Passenger Car
Off Highway
Defence, Marine & Rail (DMR)
Each division is responsible for all OE sales activies, all aftermarket issues and all technical support requirements as called for by our customers.
Aftermarket support
It is clear then that in order to ensure we properly service this market and remain in business and profitable it is essential to have a robust and efficient support network; fortunately we have.
The magnitude of the market dictates that product groups should be divided into service centres in order to provide an efficient support service. In the larger markets, particularly Off Highway, Truck & Bus and Passenger Car we have commissioned a set of dedicated companies who represent ZF Great Britain in the aftermarket. In the smaller markets, we support the customer directly from ZFGB, calling on our service network when necessary.
Truck, Bus, Coach & Off Highway Service
Our ZF DriveCentre ® Network is the only place you can obtain official, fully warranted support for the following ZF products on all on-road or off-road vehicles:
- Automatic, manual and automated transmissions (including Ecomat, Ecosplit and AS Tronic)
- Axles including front, rear and low-floor
- Steering systems
- Powershift and automated transmissions (Ergopower and AS Tronic)
- Differentials
- Genuine Parts
Together with our DriveCentre network we can offer a whole range of purchase, installation and service options; from simple repairs to fully remanufactured service exchange units.
For more information please visit our Commercial Vehicle Service or the Off Highway Service page.
Passenger Cars
Our passenger car customers are supported via a different network of Car Parts Centres which provide support for:
- Automatic transmissions
- Continuously variable transmissions
- Steering systems
- Suspension components
For more information please visit our Passenger Car Service page.
Marine
ZF Great Britain and our agents are able to provide products and support for the following applications:
- Workboat & pleasure craft transmissions
- Controls & propulsion systems
- Integrated driveline & control systems
For information on any of our products please either contact us or visit the ZF Marine website.
All other products
For all other products supplied or supported from ZFGB, including:
- Industrial products (including motion control, tension control, hysteresis clutches and brakes, bevel gearboxes, graessner gearboxes, heid gearboxes, compact gearboxes, custom gearboxes and SWG)
- Materials Handling Products (including vertical drive units, horizontal drives, hub and belt drive units using both AC and DC technology)
- Defense applications
- Rail applications
Please contact the group directly (using the details on the linked pages) or contact us via the general details.