Ignition specialist NGK has officially opened a new European distribution centre to supply customers in 44 countries.

The world’s largest manufacturer of spark plugs, glow plugs and NTK Lambda sensors will supply original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket customers from the new state-of-the-art facility at Duisburg in Germany.

The new centre complements NGK’ s UK operation at Hemel Hempstead and significantly increases the company’s logistics capacities following the recent expansion of its product portfolio in Europe. NTK Exhaust Gas Temperature Sensors (EGTS), NTK Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensors and Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensors have all been added to the existing line-ups of spark plugs, ignition coils, glow plugs and NTK Lambda sensors.

Industry VIPs and European Press were welcomed to the new facility by Shinichi Odo, President and CEO of the NGK Group, at an opening ceremony attended by Volker Mosblech, Mayor of the City of Duisburg, and Tammy Suzuki, Deputy Managing Director, NGK Spark Plugs (UK) Ltd.

Each day, NGK Spark Plug Europe ships more than one million pieces in 300 consignments containing approximately 5000 delivery items to aftermarket customers and Mr Odo said the top priority of the new facility was to deliver customer satisfaction.

NGK Says the new distribution centre paves the way for even faster and more efficient handling of high volume shipments. It offers 22,000 pallet bays, 21,000 square metres of storage area and 44,000 shuttle storage places. More than 100 employees will keep the new regional distribution centre running. Automated processes as well as powerful warehouse management software ensure that every order is packaged and dispatched the same day.