Expansion in the butter pit with support from China

Desay Automotive Europe GmbH in Weimar is growing and setting up a new branch

ATTB Antennentechnik has been setting a breathtaking pace of development since its takeover by the Chinese Desay SV Automotive group. It was only in 2017 that the company, with 90 employees, moved from Bad Blankenburg to a brand new plant in Weimar-Legefeld. Today, it has 136 employees and will now also almost double in area. In addition, it has now rented one of the vacated Coca-Cola halls for a new line of business.

The prototype laboratory of the company, which has risen to become the European headquarters of the Chinese parent company, has successfully gone into operation. The first pre-series vehicle ("Erlkönig") was already in the newly built development center in September. Up to 20 employees have their workplaces there. Several commercial vehicles and passenger cars can be developed here simultaneously.

New major orders for antenna technology

The once freely accessible company premises in the Buttergrube are now massively fenced off and certified according to the TISAX standard for information security. This is tailored to the needs of the automotive industry and is the prerequisite for manufacturers to entrust their pre-series vehicles to Desay SV Automotive Europe GmbH in Weimar in the first place. Thus, customer-separated premises are also part of the process.

In the first Corona year, the company still had to use short-time work. This in turn paid off this year. Within a year, the antenna technology division was able to secure twelve major orders and respond flexibly to them.

As a result, the company is now bursting at the seams. In February, a two-story container solution will therefore be erected on the company parking lot as a transitional measure. Even Managing Director Michael Weber gives up his comparatively large office so that five employees can find their workplaces there. At the same time, the company acquires two more plots of land. The larger one has 9500 square meters to the east of the neighbor Goepfert Werkzeug- und Formenbau and is to create new jobs for development, sales and administration.

The smaller plot, with 2000 square meters, will initially replace the parking spaces that will be lost, but is intended to accommodate a parking garage at some point in the future. The next expansion is already planned for the large site. First of all, a building measuring 30 by 20 meters and about 15 meters high is being built with a state-of-the-art 3D antenna measurement chamber. Here, the performance of the up to 30 antennas per vehicle can be measured and thus optimized. A second building in the neighborhood will house offices and laboratories. In a further construction phase, two neighbors of identical construction will be added.

The company is opening a completely new production branch in the former Coca-Cola halls on Schwanseestraße. It has rented 2700 square meters there on a long-term basis. It is relocating final assembly, testing and delivery of radios and instrument clusters from Hungary to Weimar by the end of January. Production is to start at the beginning of February, announces Michael Weber.

Step by step, this branch of production will be expanded in order to technically equip the "intelligent and entertaining driver's cab" with Desay products one day. The company is recruiting personnel for its enormous growth plans in a two-stage process regionally and throughout Germany. It aims to grow to a total of 300 employees by 2025.