Consultants deliver reports, we also deliver customers.
What we are seeing in European automotive supply.
Reads, proof and guides for automotive suppliers. All in one place.
Articles
The 18 month signal, platform risk, and where growth hides. Free to read, no email wall.
Guides and white papers
The diversification brief, European expansion, GDPR for growth. One email, yours to keep.
The brochure
The problem we solve, how we work, the results. Made to share with your management team.
In the press
European automotive suppliers, who survives and who disappears.
Christian Drenth in GlobalAutoIndustry.com.
Who holds position as the value chain shifts, and who falls behind. The 18 month argument, set out in full.
Full Circle. Squeezed From Both Ends.
Christian Drenth in Auto Recycling World, June 2026.
Why OEMs taking back battery materials, and Chinese competition in resale markets, squeeze the value chain from both ends.
Articles
What’s Up Auto Europe — A weekly read on the European automotive supply chain. What is shifting, who is restructuring, and what it means for your position.
The call nobody wants to make.
Most teams avoid the phone and blame the channel. The real reason is the fear of rejection.
Five questions about your customer, not your product.
Know how your customer makes money and you become a partner. Know only your product and you stay a vendor.
What the factory floor tells you that a report does not.
I advised a client for months without walking their floor. I got it wrong.
Case studies
Where the work has landed. Find the situation closest to yours.
Organic growth
Mercedes-Benz S-Class
A linear motion technology manufacturer with strong products and stagnant European automotive sales. The team was positioned as a component supplier, not as a solution partner.
Result. European automotive sales grew 50% in 24 months. Mercedes-Benz awarded a sub assembly contract for the S-Class interior.
Miele and the European appliance sector
A precision telescopic slide manufacturer with no presence in domestic appliances. We chose Miele first, because their standards are the most demanding in European appliances.
Result. Over five years, oven slides grew to a third of the client’s European revenue.
Iveco Trucks in Italy
A supplier entering Italy with a price gap to bridge. We started with a showroom visit and a single engineering problem Iveco had not yet solved.
Result. Start of production reached six months after first contact.
Getting into Chrysler, the Pacifica story
Chrysler had settled suppliers and no reason to change. We named three problems the existing supplier had not solved.
Result. Tooling cost down 50%, assembly speed up 30%, and a place on the Pacifica interior.
Doubling sales in Germany, welding automation
A Belgian welding automation maker entering Germany, against settled local suppliers and cautious technical buyers.
Result. Sales doubled in year one, and a rental model created a new revenue stream.
Portfolio and M&A
Asset acquisition and post integration
Inside a European component manufacturer, Christian led an asset acquisition and the integration that followed. The deal completed during COVID, with no on site travel possible.
Result. A full acquisition run from the inside, as the operator. That perspective now informs how we guide clients considering the same path.
Portfolio decision, hold and develop or sell
Before strategy, you need intelligence
A board wanted to exit a product line. They had the will, but not the facts to act on it. In 90 days they had a verified market map across three continents.
Result. A verified market map across three continents, and one correction that would have cost them credibility if missed. Part 1 of 3.
Four strategies, two modelled, one recommendation
With the market mapped, the question became which exit route to take, and who might buy. Four options became two financial models.
Result. A universe of 49 buyers became a shortlist of 11, and four priority targets. Part 2 of 3.
What the board had at the end
The board started with one product range they wanted to exit, and little else. Ninety days later they could name the route, the price floor, and the buyers.
Result. A ranked route, a price floor, named buyers, and the confidence to act. Part 3 of 3.
Market entry research
Before strategy, you need a map
A Dutch precision component manufacturer with a strong product and one question. Which markets to target, and in what order.
Result. A verified intelligence base across seven markets in 90 days. Part 1 of 3.
Seven markets, one standard
Five segments researched in full, two more tested. Every competitor figure sourced from filed accounts, not databases.
Result. Seven comparable reports, one sourcing standard. Part 2 of 3.
What a map actually changes
What the client could decide in April that they could not in January. Three findings they did not want to hear.
Result. Ranked markets, named accounts, two costed certification paths, one channel correction. Part 3 of 3.
Guides and white papers
The diversification brief
How automotive metal suppliers find new revenue before the order book empties. The 18 month signal, push and pull, and where the growing component groups sit.
What to ask before hiring a diversification adviser →
Expanding into Europe without halving your profit
Europe is the world’s largest market for industrial buyers. It is also 27 countries, each with its own rules, taxes, and energy costs. This paper shows why expansion budgets blow up after year two, and how to enter without giving away the margin you gain.
What this paper answers
- Where the hidden costs sit, from border friction to energy bills three times those in the United States
- Why the usual moves, the eager first distributor and the country by country rollout, quietly destroy profit
- A sequenced way in, set out by role, with an implementation framework you can act on
Turning GDPR from a brake into an advantage
Most B2B teams treat GDPR as a reason not to reach out. That caution costs them customers. This paper shows how to build a lead approach that is both compliant and effective, and how the rules differ across Germany, France, the UK, Italy, and Spain.
What this paper answers
- When you can rely on legitimate interest, and when you need consent
- How to build a compliant lead approach that still reaches the right buyers
- What changes country by country across Europe’s five largest economies
Brochure
The DreCo Insights brochure
A short read on the problem we solve, how we work, and the results behind it. Useful to share with your management team.
A first conversation, no obligation
We believe business is all about people.
So a first conversation is just that. A conversation. We look at where the business stands today, the immediate risks, and one or two moves worth testing.
No presentation. No sales talk. No follow up unless you ask for it.
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