Continental in Portugal
Continental in Portugal

Continental develops pioneering technologies and services for sustainable and connected mobility of people and their goods. Founded in 1871, the technology company offers safe, efficient, intelligent and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation. In 2023, Continental generated sales of €41.4 billion and currently employs around 200,000 people in 56 countries and markets.

About Continental in Portugal

As Continental in Portugal, we enable value creation and growth by providing an application portfolio which is best-in-class in the tire industry. Our plant in Lousado produces passenger car tires, with an annual production coming to around 19 million tires. Over the past years, Continental has invested in Lousado around one billion Euros into increasing the production capability, expanding high-performance tire production and ramping-up the production of agricultural and off-the-road tires in Lousado. In 2021 a new IT hub for Digital Solutions, Data Science and Supply Chain Management was launched in Portugal. These investments are aligned with Continental's Tire Sector long-term vision and strategy.

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Facts and Figures

Presence in Portugal
> 0

years operating in Portugal

Number of locations
0
Number of employees
~ 0

are working at Continental in Portugal in the fields of Operations, Marketing, Purchasing, IT, Human Relations, Communications, Tires.

Our Locations in Portugal

  • Continental Mabor, Lousado (CMIP)

    Continental Mabor started in July 1990 as a joint venture between Mabor (40%) and Continental (60%). In 1993, Continental acquired the remaining capital. Since its start, the plant expanded its facilities to 799,150 m². Nowadays it has a covered area of more than 314,000 m² and also increased tire production from 5,000 to over 50,000 tires per day. Continental Mabor manufactures passenger, agricultural and off-the-road tires and has in its facilities an Evaluation and Testing Center for agricultural and industrial tires. There is also a recently opened technology hub in Lousado which develops solutions that are replicated across the Group's tire plants.

  • Continental-Indústria Têxtil do Ave, Lousado (C-ITA)

    Continental-Indústria Têxtil do Ave produces textile solutions for various industries, specializing in fabrics and cords for tires, and knitted fabrics for artificial leather applications. Continental-ITA's vision demonstrates where it came from (textiles) and at the same time the willingness to go where the future takes it; its mission focuses on creating value, in various forms, for all stakeholders.

  • Continental Pneus, Lousado (CPP)

    Continental Pneus, Lousado is responsible for the sales of Continental Group tires in Portugal for both OEM and replacement market for PLT, 4x4s, commercial, and industrial vehicles. With a close approach to its customers, the company has positioned itself as a market benchmark in terms of profitability and sustained presence, providing products and services able to create value for its Business Partners. With safe mobility as a fundamental base, the company carries out various initiatives under the Vision Zero project, for a future without accidents.

  • Continental Advanced Antenna, Vila Real (CAA)

    Continental Advanced Antenna, based in Vila Real, is one of Europe's leading specialists and manufacturers of antennas for vehicles, producing around 17 million antennas a year, which are exported all over the world. With around 550 employees, it is one of the largest private employers in Vila Real. It belongs to the Group's Automotive sector and deals essentially with the premium segment of car brands. Smart antennas for vehicles are the starting point for the connectivity of the future - inside and outside cars - and is one of the company's focuses for future connectivity.

  • Continental Lemmerz, Palmela (CLCA)

    Continental Lemmerz, founded on September 27, 1994, is a company specialized in tire/wheel assembly, supplying them on a Just In Time basis, with a modern, fully automated assembly line with a capacity of over 1,000,000 wheels per year (from rim 16" to 21"). The barcode system ensures complete traceability of the process from component's reception to shipment. Owned by Continental Mabor and by Schedl Automotive System Service Auslandsbeteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, its sole client is VW Autoeuropa.

  • Continental Engineering Services, Porto (CES)

    Continental Engineering Services aims to actively protect the resources available on our planet by by constantly seeking greater efficiency. As conscientious individuals, we assist others in fulfilling their dreams while meeting client expectations. CES creates, develops, and produces pioneering technological solutions across various industrial sectors, including aerospace engineering, agriculture, medicine, maritime, and railway transport. Our solutions represent protection, and health, a higher quality of life, rapid progress, increased environmental protection, and the opportunity to personally shape the future.

  • Continental Solution Center, Lousado (CSC)

    Continental Solution Center aims to boost tire solution digitalization, optimizing both production processes and commercial operations. Incorporating artificial intelligence creates improvements, it can enhance final finishing activities, by detecting deviations almost imperceptible to the human eye. Another CSC’s focus area is tire management, such as the ContiConnect solution, that provides the digital monitoring of tire metrics (pressure, temperature and mileage) which enables specific action recommendations.

Working at Continental in Portugal

Continental Group has a total of seven companies in Portugal. In economic terms Lousado Plant is the 4th biggest exporter in Portugal and in 2023 and 2024 received the Innovation Award from Cotec. In March 2024, was classified by several entities as nº 2 on the Best Reputation Company rankings in the category of mobility, car and motorcycles.

With more than 18 million Passenger tires and more than 53.000 Agro Tires as well as more than 14.000 OTR tires, Continental supports the mobility needs of both people and industries worldwide. Within the two business segments PLT and CST we employ more than 2.700 employees.

Our benefits

  • Health and Life Insurance

  • Activities

  • Medical Services

  • Professional Training

  • Employee Tire Discounts

  • Protocols & Partnerships

  • Sabbatical Leaves

News

Our Latest News in Portugal

Continental Named Among World’s Most Sustainable Companies

  • Continental included in Time and Statista’s list of the 500 most sustainable companies 
  • Ambition for 2050 at the latest: tires made entirely from sustainable materials

Download - pdf (169KB)

Continental Tire Plant in Lousado achieves CO2 neutral Production

  • CO2-neutral production being tested in mega-plant Lousado - Portugal
  • An innovative electric boiler can generate steam from green eletricity

Download - pdf (180KB)

Continental Celebrates Over Three Decades of Innovation and Sustainability at Its Lousado Tire Plant

  • Continental´s Lousado plant marks over 30 years of growth
  • ISCC PLUS certification and production of the UltraContact NXT tires

Download - pdf (123KB)

Continental in Lousado Portugal supports various institutions of local community.

  • Continental makes a donation this holiday season of over 90,000 euros.
  • Food donations total around 40,000 euros.

Download - pdf (157KB)

Continental Tire Factory in Lousado receives the international ISCC PLUS certification.

  • The certification confirms our strong commitment to sustainability and transparency
  • Until 2030 tires will have more than 40% renewable and recycled materials.

Download - pdf (282KB)

Our Company

Executive Board
Vision and Mission

In an increasingly complex world, it is becoming more and more important for companies to focus on the essentials. And for Continental, the essentials are those topics, projects, products or measures that, in line with the new Vision/Mission statement, create value and contribute to a better tomorrow. The Vision/Mission statement also outlines how this can be achieved, namely through technologies that offer our customers solutions to the major challenges of our time and that are supported by a high level of commitment from all employees.

Our Vision/Mission define why we do what we do. To achieve this, we pursue a clear strategy. In implementing this, we make decisions and act according to principles that are critical for success. Our four values Freedom To Act, Passion To Win, For One Another and Trust guide us. They show how we work, lead and make decisions together. They remind us of what makes us strong and of what matters.

Creating Value.

Everything we do is designed to create value. This can be financial value for our shareholders but also value for our customers, our employees and the societies in which we operate.

A better tomorrow.

For our goal is: to build a Better Tomorrow.
With our products and services, we contribute to making the world a little better. We develop and produce mobility and industrial solutions of tomorrow, making it safer, more convenient and more sustainable. At the same time, a better tomorrow means acting now and not in the distant future. On a daily basis.

Our Technologies.

We will achieve these improvements with the help of technology. We are a technology company and believe that we will only be able to tackle the challenges of our time by rapidly developing the right technologies. Rather than being an end in itself, technology must help our customers make their products even better and more useful.

Your solutions.

 This is where our vision and mission statement comes in: “Our Technologies. Your Solutions.” Because we are customer-focused in everything we do.

Powered by the passion of our people.

This makes it clear that Continental stands for a certain culture. A culture of mutual respect. A culture of togetherness. And a culture of passion.

We are focusing on what is essential: creating value. Because in this way, we know that we can contribute to a better future. We have everything we need to create value: the right organization, a convincing strategystrong partnersinnovative technologies and, above all, passionate people within our Continental team.

When it comes to mobility, all roads lead to us. Safe, autonomous, connected and sustainable driving is the new horsepower for the mobility of the future.

Strategy

With our strategy, which was realigned to address the transformation in the mobility industry, we have paved the way for profitable growth over the coming years. In 2021, we systematically realigned our entire organizational structure and our management processes to this strategy. We see the transformation in the mobility industry as an opportunity. Our strategy is based on three cornerstones: Strengthening operational performance, differentiating the portfolio, turning change into opportunity.

Find out more about the Strategy of the Continental Group

History

Since it was founded in 1871, Continental has developed into one of the world’s leading technology companies. In its early days, Continental produced parts made of soft rubber, such as hoof buffers for horses. From the outset, the strategic focus has always been on diversity and innovation. Shortly after its foundation, the company manufactured more than 60,000 items – from the initial hoof guard and hard rubber parts for various applications to rubberized fabrics for airplanes, airships and hot air balloons.

Early on, Continental brought numerous innovations to the market, such as pneumatic tires for bicycles in 1892 and tread tires for cars in 1904. As a result, Continental has become known worldwide in the past century. Today, we are one of the world’s key suppliers for mobility. With the experience we have gained over 150 years and our expertise across the company, we will continue to set the technological benchmark and play a leading role in shaping the transformation in the automotive industry.

Scroll through our history from 1871 to the present: Our milestones (English only)

Information for Suppliers

Continental is constantly searching not only for new potential clients, but also for new potential suppliers and business partners. Within Continental a big range of purchasing activities are centralized and executed by the Corporate Purchasing department. We are divided into Production Material and Non-Production Material, with teams working in different countries all over the world. 

Our Vision: Our vision is to fuel Continental's success through purchasing performance.

Our Mission: Our mission is to provide market expertise and sustainable purchasing solutions to source goods and services competitively for all of Continental. Our customers value us, because we create value.

Our Behavior: Continental is committed to honesty and integrity with respect to our entire business conduct towards employees, customers, suppliers, competitors and other stakeholders. We expect all our suppliers and business partners to adhere to the same level of commitment we implement internally. 

The Sustainability Management function within Corporate Purchasing ensures, that we work together in creating a better and more sustainable world for future generations. This function works close together with our Corporate Sustainability department.

We as Purchasing trust that compliance is a key factor of satisfying requirements and expectations of our suppliers. We request our suppliers who are aware of illegal and dubious business activities involving Continental and its employees to use our Integrity Hotline. To disregard and ignore such behaviour is not acceptable.

Learn more about our Business Partner Code of Conduct - Continental AG.

Additional important links related to purchasing at Continental:

Supplier Requirements Manual - pdf (469KB)

Please find all Information about purchasing processes and ergonomic requirements for suppliers on our global site.

 

Our Products and Solutions

Automotive

The Automotive group sector comprises technologies for passive safety, brake, chassis, motion and motion control systems. Innovative solutions for assisted and automated driving, display and operating technologies, as well as audio and camera solutions for the vehicle interior, are also part of the portfolio, as is intelligent information and communication technology for the mobility services of fleet operators and commercial vehicle manufacturers. Comprehensive activities relating to connectivity technologies, vehicle electronics and high-performance computers round off the range of products and services.

Learn more about our innovative technologies for Automotive

Tires

With its premium portfolio in the car, truck, bus, two-wheel and specialty tire segment, the Tires group sector stands for innovative solutions in tire technology. Intelligent products and services related to tires and the promotion of sustainability complete the product portfolio. For specialist dealers and fleet management, Tires offers digital tire monitoring and tire management systems, in addition to other services, with the aim of keeping fleets mobile and increasing their efficiency. With its tires, Continental makes a significant contribution to safe, efficient and environmentally friendly mobility.

Learn more about our Continental Tires product and service portfolio in Portugal

 

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