Verified Sep 2026
Chassis & Safety Systems
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Attendorn, Germany
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Since 1916
Mubea (Muhr und Bender KG) is a privately held German automotive Tier 1 supplier founded in Attendorn in 1916. Specializing in lightweight spring components, the company produces coil springs, stabilizer bars, valve springs, belt tensioners, and composite chassis springs for global OEMs from 70-plus locations and more than 17,200 employees.
Mubea at a glance
Revenue
€3.5B
FY2025 · Berylls study + company site · no margin published
Employees
~17,200
FY2025 per company site · 70+ locations worldwide
Founded
1916
Attendorn, Germany · Muhr family-owned since founding
Headquarters
Attendorn, Germany
Ownership
Private
Muhr family · not listed · founded 1916
Certifications
IATF 16949
Claimed · GM Supplier Quality Excellence Award 2025
Import activity
9,605
US import shipments on record · most recent Sep 2026
Known customers
General Motors · Airbus Atlantic
GM press + SPE award (2022) · CompositesWorld (2026)
Industries
Automotive
Electric Vehicles
Aerospace
STABILITY SIGNALS
Established & active
110 years in continuous operation; family-owned and privately held since 1916.
9,605 recorded US import shipments through September 2026, routed through the Florence, Kentucky plant from Mubea's own European manufacturing entities.
Documented supply programs with General Motors (2022 Silverado/Sierra GFRP leaf springs) and Airbus Atlantic (A350 CFRP structural components, contract awarded June 2026).
What Mubea makes
Mubea is a Tier 1 supplier organized into five divisions: Chassis, Body, Powertrain, Aviation, and Industry. Chassis is the largest and most recognized, built around coil spring systems and stabilizer bars that the company has been refining since the 1970s. The coil spring product line uses what Mubea calls its High Performance Process, a proprietary manufacturing method that induces residual compressive stresses into deep surface layers of the spring wire, producing lighter springs with higher dynamic strength than conventionally manufactured equivalents. The stabilizer bar line runs from hollow tubular bars -- Mubea pioneered the tubular stabilizer bar on the Porsche 928 in the late 1970s -- through solid bars, links, and rubber bushings, supplied as a complete system.
A growing part of the Chassis division is composite springs. Mubea developed an all-composite bill of materials leaf spring for light trucks using about 60 percent glass fiber by volume and compression molding, reducing mass by up to 75 percent compared to all-steel construction. General Motors adopted the part for the 2022 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, a program Mubea developed after applying similar technology to commercial vans in Europe. The company also manufactures carbon fiber-reinforced polymer stabilizer bars and glass fiber-reinforced plastic longitudinal, tension, and transverse leaf springs for passenger cars. The Chassis Composite Springs business unit in Attendorn received the GM Supplier Quality Excellence Award in 2025.
The Powertrain division makes valve springs, belt tensioner systems, and connecting products for both combustion engines and electric drivetrains. The Body division applies flexible rolling technology and carbon fiber composite work to car body structures. Aviation, the newest division by scope, produces structural composite components for aerospace programs; Mubea Aviation was awarded a serial supply contract by Airbus Atlantic for CFRP structural parts on the A350 in June 2026. The company also makes disc springs for industrial applications including safety valves and press tooling.
Financial performance
Mubea generates approximately €3.5 billion in annual revenue, per the Berylls by AlixPartners top-100 automotive supplier study for FY2025, which draws from the company's own published figures. The company's website states a turnover of €3.6 billion alongside a workforce of more than 17,200 employees at 70 locations worldwide. Mubea is privately held and publishes no profitability data; EBIT margin figures are not available.
The company characterizes its financial trajectory as doubling turnover every seven years, a rate it says it has sustained for more than two decades. It invests approximately 10 percent of turnover annually, a ratio that is high for a supplier of this scale and consistent with the sustained in-house development of production technologies the company describes as a core principle. Mubea created more than 5,000 jobs over the six years through 2024 per its own statements, though a plant closure in Kežmarok, Slovakia -- which employed 123 people and shut down in 2026 -- represents the other direction of that adjustment.
Ownership and history
Josef Muhr senior and his son Josef Muhr junior founded the company on August 1, 1916, in Attendorn in the Sauerland region of Germany, leasing a small factory building for 230 marks a year. The name MUBEA was trademarked in 1931 by the State Patent Office in Berlin: MU from Muhr, BE from Bender (a subsequent co-owner), A from Attendorn. The company has remained privately held and family-operated for its entire 110-year history; CEO Thomas Muhr (Dr.-Ing., Dr.-Ing. E. h.) leads the company as of 2026.
Key milestones in the company's growth: the Daaden, Germany subsidiary opened in the 1960s to address a local labor shortage; the Florence, Kentucky plant launched in 1981, making Mubea one of the earlier German Tier 1 suppliers to establish US production; a patent for the side load spring (axially offset spring) was granted in 1989, solving a vibration problem in VW's Audi Quattro, Golf, and Passat lineup. The company celebrated its centenary in September 2016. Since 2019, it has expanded into aviation through acquisitions including the German and Hungarian activities of RUAG Aerostructures (July 2023) and Canadian aerospace firm Cyclone Manufacturing (September 2023). In January 2026, Mubea consolidated three Czech subsidiaries -- Mubea-HZP, Mubea IT Spring Wire, and Mubea Stabilizer Bar Systems -- into a single entity.
Certifications and quality
Mubea describes IATF 16949 compliance as standard across its automotive manufacturing network. No specific certificate with a dated scope has been published on the company's website, which is not unusual for a supplier of this scale operating dozens of sites under a group quality system. The GM Supplier Quality Excellence Award granted to the Chassis Composite Springs unit in Attendorn in 2025 is awarded by GM to suppliers who meet defined quality standards over a sustained period, including delivery performance, and provides independent evidence of a functioning quality management system in at least that facility.
The company conducts PPAP and APQP as standard procedure, per its published quality documentation. It develops production technologies in-house, which it says allows full control over process validation.
Known customers
Mubea's customer list reflects its position in original equipment manufacturer programs across chassis and powertrain. Two relationships are documented in primary or credible third-party sources:
Customer | Program | Evidence | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
General Motors | 2022 Chevrolet Silverado, 2022 GMC Sierra -- GFRP composite leaf springs | Plastics Machinery Manufacturing, March 2023; Mubea site; co-winner of SPE Automotive Innovation Award | 2022 |
Airbus Atlantic | A350 -- CFRP structural components | CompositesWorld, June 2026; Mubea Aviation news portal | 2026 |
Mubea's history page documents a stabilizer bar first applied on the Porsche 928 and the side load spring developed for the VW Audi Quattro, Golf, and Passat -- historical programs that established its chassis relationships with German OEMs. The company's Florence, Kentucky facility serves North American automakers; US customs records show 9,605 inbound shipments routed through Florence from Mubea's own European manufacturing entities, predominantly spring components.
Recent news
Jun 2026 -- Mubea Aviation won a serial supply contract from Airbus Atlantic to produce carbon fiber-reinforced polymer structural components for the A350 aircraft program. The contract was formalized at a kick-off meeting at Mubea Aviation's facility in Ergene, Turkiye (CompositesWorld).
Jun 2026 -- Mubea closed its plant in Kežmarok, Slovakia, notifying the local labor office of 123 redundancies. The plant had opened in 2020 and the closure was attributed to weak product sales (regional Slovak reporting).
Mar 2026 -- Sapura Industrial, Malaysia's sole manufacturer of stabilizer bars, signed a five-year technical licensing agreement with Mubea Fahrwerksfedern GmbH covering hollow stabilizer bars and high-stress coil springs. Sapura will pay royalties in exchange for Mubea's engineering expertise and production know-how (The Edge Malaysia).
Frequently asked questions
What does Mubea make?
Mubea is a German automotive Tier 1 supplier specializing in lightweight spring components and chassis systems. Its main product families are coil spring systems, hollow and solid tubular stabilizer bars, belt tensioner systems, valve springs, and composite springs made from glass fiber and carbon fiber. It also manufactures structural aerospace components through its aviation division.
Who owns Mubea?
Mubea is privately owned by the Muhr family and has been since its founding in 1916 in Attendorn, Germany. It is not publicly listed. CEO Thomas Muhr leads the company as of 2026. The company's full legal name is Muhr und Bender KG.
What is Mubea's annual revenue?
Mubea generates approximately €3.5 to €3.6 billion in annual revenue, per the Berylls by AlixPartners top-100 automotive supplier study (FY2025) and the company's own published figures. As a private company, Mubea does not publish EBIT margins or audited financial statements.
Where is Mubea headquartered?
Mubea is headquartered in Attendorn, in the Sauerland region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, where the company was founded in 1916. It operates more than 70 locations worldwide, including a long-established US plant in Florence, Kentucky opened in 1981.
Who are Mubea's customers?
Mubea's primary markets are global automotive OEMs. Documented programs include the 2022 General Motors Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra (composite leaf springs) and the Airbus Atlantic A350 (CFRP structural components, 2026 contract). The company's history of spring development includes work with Volkswagen Group and Porsche. Mubea's own site states its coil springs are present in a substantial share of cars produced globally.
Last verified Sep 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.
Leadership
Thomas Muhr
CEO
Location & contact
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