Subsidiary of Carl Zeiss AG, World’s Leading Maker of High-Tech Industrial, Medical and Research Solutions and Lifestyle Products, secures Skills, Jobs, and Technologies in South Africa.
Carl Zeiss Optronics GmbH of Germany has agreed to acquire a majority in Denel’s Optronics unit as part of the South African company’s restructuring process. The new optronics business, to be known as Carl Zeiss Optronics (Pty) Ltd., will compete on international markets for the design, manufacturing, and support of optical and opto-electronic systems, mainly in the civil security and defence fields. At a ceremony in Centurion today (14 March) Denel Group CEO Shaun Liebenberg and the CEO of Carl Zeiss Optronics GmbH, Dr Armin Breinig signed agreements on the new company.
Carl Zeiss Optronics initially takes a 70% holding in the new South African entity, while Denel retains the other 30%. The German company is a member of the Carl Zeiss Group, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-tech optical and opto-electronic industrial, medical and research solutions and lifestyle products. Carl Zeiss Optronics contributes its skills and experience in modernisation and innovation in the optronics sector, and in managing and marketing a highly specialised high-tech research, development, and manufacturing entity in this specialised field. The German company’s international reputation for producing superior quality on time and to cost, and its global customer relationships will also benefit the new company.
Through a senior management team deployed largely from Germany, Carl Zeiss Optronics assumes responsibility for the running and performance of the new entity and will invest significantly in skills upgrades across the workforce in South Africa. Besides employees from its German plants on long-term contracts to South Africa, Carl Zeiss Optronics GmbH will also provide specialists on shorter term secondments to assist in technology and skills transfers to the new company.
Groups of South African employees will spend time working with and learning from their colleagues at the Carl Zeiss Optronics factory in Oberkochen, southern Germany. The local entity will in future be led by Kobus Viljoen, a South African who has been a senior member of the Carl Zeiss Optronics international sales team responsible until recently for Africa and South America.
Denel Optronics contributes to the new entity its existing product range, capital equipment, and client base, as well as its highly regarded niche design and manufacturing skills. Denel (Pty) Ltd will ensure the recapitalisation of the company ahead of the formation of the new partnership.
As co-owners, Carl Zeiss Optronics GmbH and Denel Pty Ltd envisage an investment over the first three years of at least R 60-million, with the German company contributing 70% and Denel 30%. In order to ensure the highest operating and customer service standards, outlays will be focussed on new product development, new production facilities, dedicated international marketing campaigns, and the establishment of international service centres, state of the art IT systems and project management tools. Based on these investments, the turnaround plan for the South African optronics unit foresees a significant rise in turnover within three years in order to sustain highly skilled jobs and the company’s technological capabilities.
“We will ensure that the new company has the capital equipment and technologies it requires to be really competitive,” said Dr Breinig. “The South African operation will be an integral part of Carl Zeiss Optronics, with research and development, quality manufacturing and customer support continuing at the highest levels from both Germany and South Africa.”
Breinig said the involvement of Carl Zeiss Optronics in South Africa “makes excellent business sense for Carl Zeiss Optronics as it fits closely with our established strategy for growth while ensuring continuing research, development and production of optronics products at the technological cutting edge.”
The new South African optronics company is the second newly formed partnership to emerge from state-owned aerospace and defence manufacturer Denel’s restructuring process. Shaun Liebenberg said it was “a tremendous step in the right direction for Denel to be associated with Carl Zeiss Optronics in this venture, which will see South Africa’s capabilities in this field slot into the global optronics business environment. The company we are creating today will bring together the best contribution from each partner, for the benefit of both, in line with the change strategy we have adopted to return Denel to profitability.”
“South Africa has made a clear choice in favour of the retention, consolidation, and long-term future of this industry,” said Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin. “The task now is to build on our existing assets and skills in creating a viable international industry participant capable of sustaining long-term involvement in the civil security and defence optronics sectors.”
“As the recipient of significant investment by South African taxpayers over several decades, and as the custodian of many of the country’s high technologies and skills, Denel is at the core of our effort to grow the contribution of high-tech industries to our economy and to meeting South Africa’s development goals. I am very pleased that we have been able to find in Carl Zeiss Optronics the right partner to join us in transforming and growing our optronics capacity,” said Erwin.
The formation of the new company is subject to the completion of certain approvals, including those related to the competition authorities. This process is expected to be completed in the near future.
The South African government has recognised the significance to the development of the country’s high-tech industries of the deployment of hard skills, technologies, and marketing expertise to the new optronics company through Industrial Participation credits to Carl Zeiss Optronics, based on the actual performance of the new company.
Note to Reporters and Editors:
About Denel
The Denel Group is a high technology South African company with product design, development, manufacturing, marketing and product support capabilities in the defence and aerospace industry.
The Group has a work force of 8 200 with a high level of technical skills in engineers, scientists and technicians. Its optronics unit has comprehensive design and manufacturing capabilities. Supported by the South African Government through the Ministry of Public Enterprises, the Denel Group is currently undergoing a major transformation process designed to secure the company’s role as a profitable and internationally competitive company which is the repository and guardian of much of South Africa’s high technology investment and skills base.
Denel’s turnaround has already seen a significant internal restructuring process bear fruits. It will see the company partnering a number of world-class manufacturers in the next several months.
About Carl Zeiss Optronics and the Carl Zeiss Group
Founded as a workshop for precision mechanics and optics in the German city of Jena in 1846, the Carl Zeiss Group is today a global leader in the optical and opto-electronic industries. There are currently 11 249 employees in the Group, of whom 3 300 are employed outside Germany. We have offices in over 30 countries and are represented in more than 100 countries, with production centers in Europe, North America, Central America, Asia, and now Africa. The company’s headquarters are in Oberkochen, Germany, in northeastern Baden-Wuerttemberg.
The owner of the Carl Zeiss AG is the Carl Zeiss Foundation (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung). The main aim of the Foundation is to secure the future of Carl Zeiss AG and SCHOTT AG (a precision glass producer). The Foundation also supports research and science in the fields in which the companies and their subsidiaries are active.
The Carl Zeiss Group defines as its most important task enabling science and technology to go beyond what human beings can see. “We make it visible” – is the corporate slogan, and the promise to customers to open doors that were previously sealed.
The Carl Zeiss Group is market leader in the majority of its fields. It offers an extraordinary spectrum of leading-edge solutions and products for Semiconductor and Optoelectronic Technology; Life Sciences and Health Care; Eye Care; and industrial solutions. Sales in the financial year 2005/6 amounted to €2.43-billion (approximately R 23.65-billion).
Carl Zeiss Optronics is one of the leading providers of optical and opto-electronic products and services for defense and security. As a business entity of the Carl Zeiss Group, Carl Zeiss Optronics sees its slogan, "We make it visible", as an obligation to its customers around the world. To us, it is a promise to incorporate more than 100 years of experience in defence optics into technologically high-quality solutions and products for internal and external security.
We develop, manufacture and distribute a wide range of optical and optronic products and systems which fulfil the requirements of the Army, Navy and Air Force. They also meet the high demands of border patrol and domestic security. The ability to flexibly and efficiently fulfil customer wishes makes us a sought-after partner for international defence forces and border patrol units.
Further enquiries
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Denel Group |
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Sam Basch |
+27 82 881 3696 |
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Carl Zeiss Group |
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Marc Cyrus Vogel |
+49 7364 20 3242 |
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Carl Zeiss Optronics South Africa |
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Stephen Laufer |
+ 27 83 444 2739 |
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