From start-up to technology leader
The company asphericon GmbH from Jena, having celebrated its 15th anniversary this year, has plans to purchase more machinery and extend its production halls from 2,300 m2 to 5,000 m2, adding clean rooms, production lines and offices. The project will cost approximately €15 m and is expected to be completed in 2018.
The foundation of the company goes back to a spin-off from Friedrich Schiller University Jena in 2001. Founders Sven R. Kiontke and Alexander W. Zschäbitz set up their first production line in Erfurt in 2003 and moved to the business incubator in Jena in 2005. In 2011, the company moved into its own premises. It now has a staff of 120 and a reputation as a top-flight manufacturer of aspheres, optical elements with non-spherical surface profiles, which are used to correct image defects and enable optics systems to become smaller and more efficient. Thanks to its state-of-the-art production technologies, continuously improved control software and highly skilled workforce, asphericon provides more than 600 customers with innovative solutions from the design, manufacture and coating of optics products to surface metrology, documentation and the assembly and optical characterization of optics modules. (maa)
Changes to Investment Incentives
Thuringia’s Ministry of Economic Affairs has increased core funding, provided again subsidy for wages and made patents eligible for funding under the ‘Joint Task for Improving Regional Economic Structures’ scheme. The wages subsidy applies to new positions with an annual gross salary of at least €35,000. Another new subsidy covers intangible economic assets such as patents, licenses and usufructuary rights, all of which are increasingly important in this ‘Industrie 4.0’ era. There are also new criteria for funding to make jobs secure and protect manufacturing sites threatened with closure. In addition, the printing sector is no longer excluded. Last year, €73 million of funding was granted to 92 investment projects being planned by businesses. The total investment of €351 million will produce more than 730 new jobs. Further applications for funding are in the pipeline.
Successful Companies on Investment Website
The <link http: www.invest-in-thuringia.de _blank>www.invest-in-thuringia.de website will soon feature short video clips from companies that have set up in Thuringia. The names include MDC Power (Daimler), Fujitsu and Kappstein; they cover the whole range from small- and medium-sized companies to global enterprises, and all are prospering, thanks in large part to the advantages of doing business from Thuringia. Do have a look at their high praise for Thuringia as a business base on the website!
