Zama Group is a family-held

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

-owned company and a manufacturer of diaphragm

carburetors A carburetor (also spelled carburettor or carburetter) is a device used by a gasoline internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the Vent ...

, oil pumps and further mechanical precision engine components. Their headquarters are in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, China. Zama supplies mainly to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of gasoline-powered outdoor tools, such as

Stihl Andreas Stihl AG & Co. (commonly referred to as Stihl and styled as STIHL, , ) is a German manufacturer of chainsaws and other handheld power equipment including trimmers and blowers headquartered in Waiblingen, Baden-Württemberg, near Stutt ...

, Husqvarna or

Yamabiko The is a high-speed Shinkansen train service operated on the Tōhoku Shinkansen between and by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan. Name The word ''yamabiko'' is usually translated as 'echo', particularly one which is heard in th ...

. It claims itself to be the technology leader in their industry.

History

Zama was founded on 1 September 1952 as Shinagawa Die-Casting Co. Ltd. in Shinagawa City

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan by Kato Jiro. With 20 employees, Zama primarily focused on producing

Automobile parts This is a list of auto parts, which are manufactured components of automobiles. This list reflects both fossil-fueled cars (using internal combustion engines) and electric vehicles; the list is not exhaustive. Many of these parts are also used o ...

for Japanese companies. In 1962 the company was moved to

Zama City Zama City is a Hamlet (place), hamlet in northwestern Alberta, Canada within Mackenzie County. It is located north of Zama Lake along Zama Road, which branches off the Mackenzie Highway (Highway 35) approximately north of High Level, Alberta ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

near

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

, Japan which had an influence on the later name of the company: Zama. In July 1975, the number of employees had reached approximately 200, and Zama entered into the carburetor business, which is their core business area today.

Expansion

In September 1981, the first location abroad was established in Torrance,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States as USA Zama Inc. to support the Headquarters in Japan by marketing, importing and delivering Zama carburetors to American customers. After four years another factory was opened in Iwate, Japan which specialized in diaphragm carburetor assembly as well as die designing and

tooling Tooling may refer to: * Machine tools and the tooling, such as cutting tools, fixtures, and accessories, that is used on them ** Cutting tool (machining), any of hundreds of kinds of cutters ** Fixture (tool), a fixed workholding or support device ...

. In March 1989, Zama Industries was founded in Hong Kong to reduce the negative impact on revenue caused by a sudden change of the currency exchange rate of JPY and

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

. Another facility was opened in November 1990 in

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People and characters * Franklin (given name), including list of people and characters with the name * Franklin (surname), including list of people and characters with the name * Franklin (class), a member of a historic ...

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, USA to expand the US operations in engineering and to establish a Zama aftermarket department. In August 1991, a second factory with 400 employees was opened in Iwate, Japan to meet the demands for more capacity. The factory was opened for die-casting and

machining Machining is a manufacturing process where a desired shape or part is created using the controlled removal of material, most often metal, from a larger piece of raw material by cutting. Machining is a form of subtractive manufacturing, which util ...

for automobile parts. By the end of 1991, a factory with 450 employees was opened in the

Special Economic Zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

of XiLi,

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

, China and major parts of the Hong Kong facilities were moved there. The main focus of this facility is the production of diaphragm carburetors. Due to the strong growth, the factory was extended in 1997 and in 2000. In 2006, when direct labor headcount had surpassed 1,000 employees, all production facilities were consolidated in one factory site in Shenzhen and a die-casting and storage facility in Hong Kong. Due to rising risk of only one main production site, Zama decided to open a second main production facility in Santo Tomas,

Batangas Batangas, officially the Province of Batangas ( ), is a first class province of the Philippines located in the southwestern part of Luzon in the Calabarzon region. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,908,494 people, making ...

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which was inaugurated in January 2016. In 2018 the XiLi factories were relocated to a new factory in

Huizhou Huizhou ( zh, c= ) is a city in east-central Guangdong Province, China, forty-three miles north of Hong Kong. Huizhou borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the west, Shenzhen and Dongguan to the southwest, Shaoguan to the north, Hey ...

, China due to municipal plans to remodel the former industrial area of XiLi into a commercial/residential zone.

Development of product variety

Starting out with the production and distribution of die-casting products, Zama developed into the world’s largest manufacturer of diaphragm carburetors and sells further products nowadays. Zama's first carburetor was produced in 1975, and the production of oil pumps was initiated in 2003. Further milestones for Zama were the production of their first electronic carburetor in 2009 and the production of their first

solenoid valve A solenoid valve is an electromechanically operated valve. Solenoid valves differ in the characteristics of the electric current they use, the strength of the magnetic field they generate, the mechanism they use to regulate the fluid, and the ...

in 2016.

Group structure

Stihl Holding

The Zama group is part of the

Holding AG & Co. KG which is headquartered in

Waiblingen Waiblingen (; Swabian: ''Woeblinge'') is a town in the southwest of Germany, located in the center of the densely populated Stuttgart region, directly neighboring Stuttgart. It is the capital and largest city of the Rems-Murr district. , Waiblin ...

, Germany. The Zama factories are

subsidiaries A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidiary company. Unl ...

owned 100% by the Stihl International GmbH.

Locations of Zama group and tasks

Zama operates in five locations around the world. Zama Corporation in Hong Kong is the administrative, financial and logistic center of the Zama Group, and distributes more than 14 million carburetors worldwide, making use of the excellent logistic and financial facilities in Hong Kong. Zama Precision Industries (Huizhou) Corporation Ltd. in Guangdong, China serves as the production location of Zama Group. Approximately 1,600 associates produce electronic fuel injection systems, carburetors, oil pumps, solenoid-valves and other parts for the outdoor industry. Zama Japan is the center of

Research and Development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

, design of in-house production tooling, as well as support for Japanese domestic customers. Zama Philippines, the newest Zama plant, is producing carburetors and miniaturized coils for solenoid valves. USA Zama, Inc, located in Franklin, Tennessee serves as the Sales headquarters for the Zama Group and the world headquarters for Zama Aftermarket Sales.

Products and customers

Zama offers about 350 different models of diaphragm carburetors and is a major manufacturer of lubricating systems for chainsaws. Other products Zama sells include electronic fuel injection systems, solenoid valves, output shafts, and complete solutions for fuel management as well as other customer-specific parts. Together with their partners, they offer complete engine management systems for small 2 and 4 cycle engines. OEM customers, such as Stihl, Husqvarna or Yamabiko, are mainly producers of lawn and garden products.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Business Meeting of the Philippine President, Dr. Ruediger Stihl and Jan Grigor Schubert Carburetor manufacturers Manufacturing companies of Germany Manufacturing companies of Hong Kong Fuel injection systems