HANOVER—ContiTech, a division of Continental A.G., is ensuring Continuity in its supply chain, Continuity in production and Continuity in innovation for its industrial drive belts.

In fact, the $6.4 billion unit of Conti is ensuring Continuity around the world, as it rebrands the entirety of its drive belt portfolio in the industrial segment with the new name. Unitta Timing Belt

All regions will be using the new naming structure by late 2023, according to ContiTech.

"We are harmonizing our portfolio worldwide and improving transparency for our customers, who can now read the performance level and properties of a belt directly on the product," says Rodrigo Maia, who leads the industrial drive belt business. "With our unified approach, we will continue to strengthen the Continental brand and our belts will appear in the premium look that matches their product quality.

"This opens the door for further improvements and new products."

As part of the rollout, ContiTech will add an expected performance level to each of its belts: standard, advanced and supreme.

As such, the performance level branding dictates a series of upgrades and "modernizations" for some drive belt series, as well as completely new product lines to expand existing ranges.

As ContiTech bundles its name into the more transparent and efficient drive belt marketing structure, the uniformity in production across global facilities allows Conti to pick up production at one plant if another shuts down.

"Our customers and partners, and of course ourselves, will benefit from our globally harmonized, transparent and broad portfolio," Maia said. "If, for example, a plant fails owing to exceptional circumstances in the future, another location can step in.

"This enables us to work more efficiently and increase productivity."

And it is one of the many reasons Conti chose the somewhat self-evident "Continuity" branding, as all products and services now can be delivered uniformly to partners and customers, the company said in a Jan. 31 release.

"We want to consistently demonstrate this premium approach to the outside world," said Sascha Heyde, product manager for drive belt solutions within the industrial segment. "In the future, it will be visibly reflected in the appearance of the belts and the naming structure.

"These are changes, of course," he continued. "But the same quality standard and people that our customers are familiar with stand behind them. We will continue to provide the best quality, technology and service to keep our customers' and partners' operations running as smoothly as ever. That is why we chose the term 'continuity' for our communication approach."

ContiTech develops and manufactures products and systems that comprise rubber, polyamide, metal, textile and electronic components.

The Continental A.G. group sector, with 40,000 employees worldwide, offers products for off-highway, rail and road, aviation, under and above ground and industrial applications, among others.

Overall, Continental A.G. has about 190,000 employees in 58 countries. The company celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2021.

When the full-year financial statement is released in March, the global automotive supplier and rubber products maker expects 2022 sales of around $42.7 billion, falling in line with its forecast (between $41.5 billion and $43.5 billion).

The adjusted EBIT margin is expected to be around 5 percent for the full year, meeting expectations of 4.7-5.7 percent.

Adjusted free cash flow, meanwhile, is expected to be close to $217 million for the full year, falling well below the expected range of $650 million to $865 million for the company.

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