Working to boost profitability and better leverage potential synergy, Jenoptik is amalgamating sites with similar operations in the US and Germany. This move is expected to result in further cost reductions and more flexibility in production.
Jenoptik is focusing further activities and strenthening the foundations required for a global group in order to boost profitability and better leverage potential synergy. The manufacture of optics in North America is being concentrated, the production of energy systems at two German sites combined. The group is maintaining its forecast for 2012.
Jenoptik is amalgamating sites with similar operations in the US and Germany, enabling further cost reductions and more flexibility in production. This will allow the Group to harness technological, production and administrative synergies. Both the improvement in the range of products and services for customers and the consolidation process will result in additional cost advantages. Specifically, the optimization measures will be applied in the Optical Systems division in the US and the Defense & Civil Systems division in Germany.
The Defense & Civil Systems division is reducing the number of its sites in Germany from four to three. With 916 employees, the division currently develops, manufactures and markets its products at the Wedel, Essen, Altenstadt and Jena locations in Germany, combining electrics/electronics, mechanical systems, laser sensors, infrared technology, optics, optoelectronics and software to produce complex components, systems and equipment. Today, energy system components for military vehicles and locomotives are manufactured at three of the four locations, i.e. in Wedel, Altenstadt and Essen. In order to boost the profitability and flexibility of the division in the future, production and development at the Essen site is due to be relocated to Wedel from next year. CFO Rüdiger Andreas Günther stresses that “following extensive analysis, it is not possible to sustainably operate four sites with partially overlapping competences.” The proposed relocation process will help to consistently prepare for the necessary increased internationalization and technological streamlining. All 73 employees currently working in Essen will be offered equivalent positions at the Wedel site, discussion and consultation with the works council will begin soon.
With this consolidation, Jenoptik is simultaneously pursuing its strategic objective to offer customers integrated solutions from one source and steadily increase operational excellence. In the US, optics manufacturing activities will accordingly be intensified at the Jupiter site in Florida. In early 2013, production capacity there will be considerably extended to include manufacture of optical precision components. This increase in capacity particularly aims at benefiting the semiconductor equipment, defence & security, healthcare & life sciences and entertainment industries. Part of the activities at the US optics site in Easthampton (MA) will be transferred to Florida. This means that the Optical Systems division will manufacture at both the Jupiter and Huntsville sites in the US in future.
The Chairman of the Executive Board of JENOPTIK AG, Dr. Michael Mertin, sees these measures as “important steps toward the continued profitable development of the Group. The strengthening of the production and development sites in Wedel (Germany) and Jupiter (Florida, US) will both improve cost structures and boost manufacturing flexibility. We are also strategically priming ourselves to be in a position to optimally meet the rising customer demand for local content, which goes hand in hand with the planned further growth of our foreign business. For this, we need powerful local structures.”
The Jenoptik Group headquarters are in Jena (Thuringia). In addition to several major sites in Germany Jenoptik is represented in nearly 70 countries. JENOPTIK AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and included in the TecDax index. The Group has more than 3,100 employees all over the world and generated sales of approximately EUR 543 million in 2011.