Things are really moving at the Photonics Centre
Interview with Kezban Saritas from the operating company WISTA-MANAGEMENT GMBH
There’s a lot happening at the Photonics and Optical Technologies Centre ZPO in Adlershof. A new generation is taking over. Successful established companies are setting up their own buildings at this technology location – creating space for new ideas at the Centre.
Where are Adlershof photonics companies active?
Kezban Saritas: For years now, the photonics sector has enjoyed a course of stable growth of about seven percent p. a. Many of our companies in Adlershof provide optical and laser technologies and operate on flourishing sectors like medical or automotive engineering. These technologies also find applications on the growing sector of renewable energies.
What’s happening now at the Photonics Centre?
Clearly the market appreciates the high quality standards here in the cluster: ZPO tenants like Bruker Nano, SMD Leiterplatten-Lötservice, and AEMtec are moving out because they want to expand – in their own buildings on the Technology Park premises. This creates space for new companies or the present tenants who need additional space at the Centre. All in all, we have a good 4,000 square metres free for new leases. This will then be joined this year by an additional 8,000 square metres at the new Photovoltaics and Renewable Energies Centre. We therefore have a lot to do. However, we already have a lot of ideas – and great interest from new companies.
What’s your recipe for future settlement? How do you bring together companies that also compete with each other?
On the one hand, we are attracting new knowhow to the location so that the companies can enrich each other with new ideas. In this manner, we create synergies rather than rivalries. On the other hand, we attach very great importance to the network philosophy. This starts with meetings for new tenants and extends to specialist events and joint trade fair presences – like just recently at Hannover Messe. What is also important, for instance, is the competence network OpTecBB that regularly hosts meetings and brings together the sector’s representatives here in Adlershof.
What do these companies appreciate about Adlershof?
Over the years word has got out that researchers and entrepreneurs appreciate and are actively committed to sharing their experiences and ideas. The findings of the sixteen local research institutes have quickly led to innovative products. I’m thinking, for instance, of the scanner for black skin cancer from the company Lasertechnik Berlin (LTB), the rotten meat scanner from the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH), or the high performance laser diodes from Jenoptik for the most diverse applications.
We also benefit from the ambassador angle. In other words, satisfied neighbours report to their business partners how they are supported here. Tenants at the Photonics Centre can express wishes to a far reaching extent. We support the companies in their PR work and in establishing business contacts. And we mustn’t forget the human factor: many find it simply pleasant that they don’t have to do their own thing completely by themselves. Our concept has even reaped praise on several occasions from the USA, where many of our companies are doing business. That, of course, really pleases us.
By Claudia Wessling for Adlershof Special