The German high-tech company Trumpf opened a new Southeast European headquarters in Hungary today. The branch was established together with a digitally networked demo factory in the Business Park in Gödöllő near Budapest. Trumpf's goal is to better serve the Southeastern European region as a solution provider in the future. “We expect a growing sales market in Hungary in the coming years. More than ever, the key to success lies in cross-border cooperation. This investment also strengthens our business in countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey,” said Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller, CEO of Trumpf.

In the medium term, the company plans to generate total sales of more than a hundred million euros in these markets by the middle of the decade. Hungary itself has strong production sites for German automotive brands and suppliers. In addition, Trumpf lasers are used in the factories of Korean car battery manufacturers who produce in Hungary for the European market. The investment sum for the new, fully equipped building and demo factory is around 13 million euros. Trumpf currently employs a total of around ninety people in Hungary.

Trumpf has been represented in Hungary with its own subsidiary for ten years now. “In our new demo factory, we show our customers digitally networked lasers and machines that many industrial sectors use to process metal. The local site should help us achieve our sales target of more than a hundred million euros in the region in the medium term,” said Tamás Major, head of Trumpf Hungary since 2013. In the course of the expansion, the company expects a moderate increase in employment. The German high-tech company employs more than 17,900 people worldwide. In the last fiscal year, sales were around 5.4 billion euros.

A sales target of over € 100 M

The new site is completely sustainable. Heating and cooling of the building and facilities is provided by 38 geothermal probes. A photovoltaic system was installed on the roof. There are numerous parking spaces with electric charging stations in the parking lot. The two-story demo factory was built according to plans by the Berlin architectural firm Barkow Leibinger and combines offices, seminar rooms, storage areas, a canteen and demo production under a butterfly roof. Concrete was only used in the construction of the building where it was technically absolutely necessary. Otherwise, wood and steel were used as CO₂-efficient or fully recyclable building materials, like, for example, the glulam roof structure. The larch wood windows are made locally in Hungary.

A catwalk crosses the demo production and offers visitors a view of the machine tools from high above.

Solutions for digitally networked sheet metal production

The digitally networked solutions of the new demo factory include systems for flexible sheet metal production and laser machines. Trumpf’s portfolio includes entry-level machines for cutting, bending or welding sheet metal through to the highly productive smart factory. The company’s lasers are used in particular by the automotive and electronics industries. The company’s green lasers, for example, are already used worldwide as the leading technology for welding copper connections in the high-performance electronics of electric vehicles.

The company is also the leading supplier of 3D printers for the production of dental prostheses. “With this demo factory, we will be able to serve the Eastern European region even better in the future. Digitally networked solutions make manufacturing more efficient and sustainable. This increases the competitive ability of our customers,” said Major. In the new demo factory, Trumpf experts work specifically on the industry-specific problems of their customers. The factory covers an area of around one thousand square meters.