Oct 8 2009
The international engineering company, M+W Zander celebrates its 20th anniversary in Asia at an event with customers, partners and staff. In 1989 M+W Zander had successfully completed its first large project in Asia, the construction of a semiconductor plant in Taiwan, and handed it over to the customer TSMC. In 2009 the group now has a presence in Asia and employs a workforce of some 2000 in 9 countries with virtually half of the Group’s turnover being achieved there. In contrast with the early days, the customers come from many high-tech sectors. Alongside the semiconductor industry, these include flat-panel production, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, biotechnology, photovoltaics, energy, research and development, datacenters and the nutrition sector.
Since the first contract, M+W Zander has built further semiconductor and subsequently also flat-panel plants in Taiwan. The technical requirements have grown continuously along the way. In 1989 M+W Zander was proud to have designed and built the first fab with a cleanroom area of over 10,000 sqm. Today’s flat-panel fabs, on the other hand, have a cleanroom production area of more than 160,000 sqm, which equates to around 25 football pitches.
After the first follow-up order in Taiwan, the next subsidiary was established in Singapore in 1991. Together with further large contracts, the early 90s saw the company expand into China and other states. Today, M+W Zander Asia is represented with subsidiaries in China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam as well as a branch in Australia.
"I am proud of the excellent performance of our staff over the past 20 years and I am convinced that the M+W Zander Group, as a leading global player in the field of high technology engineering, will continue to realize the most demanding projects to the complete satisfaction of our customers in the future," said Georg Stumpf, Chairman of the Supervisory Board and owner. "The Stumpf Group, as a stable and long-term owner of the M+W Zander Group, will ensure that M+W Zander in Singapore will expand its strong position in the Asian growth market and will play a major role in the M+W Zander Group's strategic growth path," Georg Stumpf continued.
"At the end of the 80s M+W Zander was a genuine pioneer when it came to transferring experience of designing and constructing high-tech plants to Asia," said M+W Zander’s Chief Executive Officer Jürgen Wild in his speech. "The willingness to tackle and manage new challenges continues to be a fundamental part of our corporate culture in 2009. Today, our focus lies in successfully transferring the know-how available within the Group to new markets". For example, in the summer M+W Zander had its first large contract for a research centre in China, while a production facility for medical devices is currently under construction in Vietnam.
"Asia is the most dynamic growth region within the M+W Zander Group today," M+W Zander Managing Director for Asia, Helmut Kurzböck explained. In 2008 sales in Asia for the Group rose to 912 million euro from 615 million euro the previous year. Kurzböck pointed to the well-developed customer satisfaction that can be seen particularly in the high rate for repeat business of 70 per cent. The managing director for Asia sees further growth in the future. Kurzböck: "Our longstanding presence in all of Asia’s growth regions offers our customers the opportunity to implement projects reliably and cost effectively".