Investing in Bremen

David Zhou first came to Bremen seven years ago. The Corona crisis has given the lighting manufacturer undreamt-of tailwind - and virtually swept his warehouse empty. This is not the only reason why he feels right at home in Bremen.

Kathrin and Mark Patel from Bremen are among the most successful designers in their chosen field. Their carpet and wallpaper collections have received numerous awards and the two collaborate with leading manufacturers. The secret of their success? All of their work tells a story.

Bremen is one of Germany's major industrial hubs, and many international companies base their headquarters and main offices in the city. Here are ten examples that may not be familiar to everyone.

Setting up your own business is never easy, but Bremen offers the perfect environment for budding entrepreneurs. A unique start-up scene has taken root in the region that will help you access the expertise, contacts and funding that you'll need to succeed. So what are you waiting for?

Bremen is known in China as one of the world’s major ports. But that’s just one of the factors attracting Chinese companies to our Hanseatic city.

Our colleague in Turkey, Erol Tüfekci, has prepared a video – set against the impressive skyscraper skyline of Izmir’s modern Bayrakli district – in which he describes how Bremeninvest helps companies with their business in Germany.

Experts speak of Bremen and Bremerhaven as the "food capitals of Germany", and this hardly seems an exaggeration for the second strongest manufacturing sector in the federal state. What would you like? Coffee or fish?

How is Turkey handling the coronavirus crisis? And why is Istanbul attracting investment of nearly US$ 2 billion from Silicon Valley?

At the end of May 2020, JDE Peets followed in the footsteps of other successful businesses from Bremen and made its initial public offering. We have put together a brief introduction to exchange-traded companies from the region and their business models.

Social distancing, masks and hygiene – a variety of different measures help to slow down the spread of coronavirus. Bremen company Statex has developed another tool to add to the armoury. Its copper tape ensures that viruses on door handles and other surfaces are deactivated faster.

Bremen and Taiwan share a long-standing friendship. The Hanseatic city has been in close contact with the Asian island for more than 30 years. New opportunities in Far Eastern markets are opening up for Bremen-based companies despite the coronavirus crisis.

Co-working spaces are very much in vogue. Especially in large cities, more and more people are renting space in modern office communities - for hours, days or months. We take a look at the co-working spaces in Überseestadt and answer key questions: How much is the rent? What do I get in return? And of course: Where do I get my coffee?

The three young founders of Yurudesign have already caused quite a stir in the Turkish furniture market. Now they’ve got their sights set on Europe. To get the ball rolling, one of them has moved to Bremen – and we accompanied him during his first few days.

What is the effect of brexite for companies? This question is answered by Anja Markmann, responsible for customs and foreign trade law at the Bremen Chamber of Commerce.

Fibre composites have become a permanent fixture in everyday life. The Bremen Fibre Institute (FIBRE) has been working on these materials for five decades, and has gained another strong partner this year in the form of the ECOMAT research centre.

What makes Vietnam – a socialist state – so interesting to western companies? In this edition of our country newsletter for Vietnam we seek to answer this question, and we also report on the country’s most exciting start-ups.

The new Silk Road is China's gigantic infrastructure project. Small and medium sized European companies can profit from it - a new network will help them. We talked to the initiators.

Products made in Bremen can be found in many everyday objects, and most of us are likely to come into contact with one or more on a daily basis. Read on to find out what they are.

Becks and Melitta may be high-profile brands, but international food and beverage companies also manufacture lots of other products in Bremen and Bremerhaven. Here are ten examples.

Storage batteries are an increasingly popular way of making energy generated by PV systems available around the clock. That is good for the environment and helps to keep costs down. Storage battery manufacturer Powertrust is looking to tried and trusted technology and giving it a new lease of life.

Not many people could name a manufacturer of metrology and testing equipment, but without their products we would not have space probes, aircraft or medical equipment. And Bremen is home to a whole host of these specialist companies.

For a long time, import duties prevented producers from selling anything other than raw beans to Europe. Bremerhaven entrepreneur Felix Ahlers supports a Cooperative which covers the entire value chain and has created 120 jobs in Ethiopia.

Bremen-based start-up cellumation has already won various awards for its invention, but now the company is really taking off. It has developed a new conveyor system called Celluveyor, whose modular construction makes it significantly more flexible and means it requires less space than conventional systems.

Lots of room in the heart of the city – when it comes to coworking, Spaces now rules the roost. Stefanie Lürken, Country Manager of Spaces in Germany, tells us what brings the company to Bremen, and why coworking is increasingly replacing teleworking from home.

Enquiry, quote, order, delivery, payment – that’s the standard procedure the world over, but it doesn’t always run smoothly if the business links involved span thousands of miles. So in 2015, the Chinese Linhorn Group opened its only European branch in Bremen in order to establish better contacts with its suppliers.

Companies that are largely unknown but are market leaders in their field – those are hidden champions. Which of these twelve hidden champions from Bremen do you know?

The ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Northern Germany is a new beacon project for the aerospace sector in Bremen.

In 2019, many people are seeing their energy costs rising yet again. Intelligent energy solutions that use solar panels and storage batteries can save quite a bit on electricity. And ADLER Solar from Bremen know how.

In January 2018, WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City. Bremen was the first federal state with its own representative office in Vietnam. Manuel Kühn, WFB Project Manager International Settlement, explains in an interview why this proved to be a really good idea.

Bremen: Down-to-earth, yet always ready to surprise you. An attractive place to live, a city through which we can move easily and without stress. People from different cities and countries tell us why they fell in love with Bremen and have made their lives here.

A company founder lives for his or her idea – no distance is too far and no obstacle too high. Four foreign entrepreneurs in Bremen share their passion for their vision.

Since 2011, economic relations with Turkish partners have been strengthened through the Bremeninvest office in Izmir. Kolja Umland, Project Manager for International Settlements and Erol Tüfekҫi, Director of the Bremeninvest Office in Izmir, report on the current situation.

Jiani Chen recently moved to Bremen. The energetic young Chinese woman founded the start-up App CN in the Hanseatic city and is now looking to kick-start her international business. She loves things about Bremen that many locals would take for granted.

Sometimes you have to learn from other people's mistakes and trust your instincts. That is what Muhammad-Farhan Aslam believed when he took over his father's business. And it turned out to be one of many good decisions that he made.

AI, machine learning, neural networks – the topic of artificial intelligence is full of jargon. We provide some simple definitions to guide you.

Bremen-based Flyline can look back on two decades of success and expansion. The British Airways (BA) subsidiary began as a call centre with a 30-strong workforce. Today, Flyline employs around 400 people at Bremen airport.

Many companies fail to choose the right approach when it comes to trademarks and Intellectual property right protection in general, according to Bremen lawyer Dr Eckhard Ratjen – not just in Germany, but also particularly when entering markets in other countries. But with the right strategy, many problems can be avoided from the outset.

Orthopaedic shoe manufacturers Indorf Orthopädie-Schuhtechnik GmbH & Co. KG in Bremerhaven successfully combine traditional products and processes with the latest advances in 3D printing.

Free electric-powered transport – Bremen set to become incubator for UZE Mobility. On behalf of its partner UZE Mobility, Bremeninvest announces the following: Bremen, 19 November 2018 – Start-up firm UZE Mobility has decided to relocate to Bremen at the beginning of 2019.

Extreme precision is the norm at Eickworth Modellbau. Major automotive companies and aerospace manufacturers rely on the services of this Bremen company whenever something needs to be accurate down to a hundredth of a millimetre.

Almost half of all coffee beans imported into Germany pass through Bremen’s ports. Coffee roasters such as Lloyd Caffee and Cross Coffee have helped to cement the image of Bremen as Germany’s coffee capital.

Bremen is Germany’s sixth-largest industrial hub in terms of revenue. Whether the sector is aerospace, food, automotive, shipping or steel production, Bremen has always been a major player.

Esteban Bayro-Kaiser has big plans for his start-up, WearHealth. And he has no doubt that Bremen can become a leading hub for artificial intelligence technology. But what made this globetrotter choose Bremen?

The best of both worlds. A young Indian from Bremen is helping German engineering to benefit from India’s factory capacities and vice versa. And everything is completely digitalised – with one click in real time, an order can be sent straight to the Indian factory. The benefit for manufacturers is huge.

Bremen is expanding. Several construction projects will reshape the city centre. The 2018 Bremen property market report – an overview of office, logistics and retail properties, and of investment market trends – confirms that the city is an attractive location for investors and developers.

To the south of Bremerhaven, plans are taking shape for a new business and industrial park that will fulfil strict sustainability criteria. Situated on what is known as the Luneplate, a site close to the largest nature conservation area in the state of Bremen, the park is set to become the home of companies operating in the green economy.

We don’t normally get to see Littelfuse’s products. And yet there’s hardly any electronic device that doesn’t require components from this global market leader. The European headquarters of the US firm are located in Bremen. And they’re far more than just a sales office.

Our city centre is evolving. Bremen is creating affordable and desirable residential areas, offices and retail space. The city is set to get a more modern look thanks to projects near the main train station, in new districts and right by the river.

Good ideas may be rare, but imitators are easy to find. Which makes it all the more important to secure patents for new inventions. Bremen-based InnoWi helps companies and the research community to register new patents, and is also on hand to provide advice and access to funding.

Exciting times in Überseestadt, Bremen’s New Harbour District. Large parts of the old 400 metre long Schuppen 3 building are to be demolished to make way for a new quarter featuring a mix of apartments, offices, retail units and services. And there is a good reason why it will be called EuropaQuartier.

It was a cold February evening when Paramjit Kohli first came to Bremen from India – and he loved it immediately. Read on to find out why he founded a company here and what lessons he has learned over the past year.

Stathis Stasinopoulos built his first bike so that he could get to and from work in Athens more easily. At the time, he could not have imagined that his idea would see him set up his own business in Bremen. We visited the entrepreneurial engineer in his new workshop in the north of Bremen.

Fish fingers have been made in Bremerhaven for almost 60 years. Over this period, they have withstood all food trends and are more popular today than ever before. On average, each German consumer eats 24 of them a year. And they were probably made in Bremerhaven, the fish finger capital.

The construction of the complex new EcoMaT research and technology centre at Airport-Stadt Bremen is at an advanced stage. Prospective tenants include Airbus and Testia, as well as a number of leading medium-sized businesses and scientific institutions. After the topping-out ceremony, work will get under way on the interior of the building.

The depths of the ocean remain one of the last great mysteries on Earth. What is the precise composition of the seafloor? What flora and fauna inhabit it? Where has the delicate balance of the ecosystem been seriously disrupted? We still don’t have complete answers to any of these questions, but four young scientists from Bremen are aiming to change that.

Bremeninvest is currently managing the fifth construction phase at Bremen Industrial Park, scheduled for completion in 2020, and has already taken reservations from several companies. Businesses that have already relocated here are investing in their growth and their future.

Bremen has the right location to suit any company, from the logistics sector at the Cargo Distribution Center (GVZ) to research institutes at the Technology Park and international companies at Bremen Airport-Stadt. Or perhaps you are looking for more of a mix of sectors to stimulate creativity? We can show you the right business park to suit your needs.