AT–Automation Technology Expands to the US

Summary

AT–Automation Technology is starting a new chapter in its already 25-year company history and is expanding to North America. With this step, the North German high-tech company from Bad Oldesloe near Lübeck is consolidating its efforts not only to extend its network in the USA, but also to strengthen sales and support for its local customers.

The management of the office in the Boston metropolitan area will be taken over by US-American Gretchen Alper, who already has many years of experience in the field of machine vision. Her big advantage: Alper was jointly responsible for the successful business development of a Dutch company in North America for almost two decades and therefore knows about the cultural differences on both sides of the Atlantic.

Gretchen Alper wants to strengthen the attention for AT in the US

“Compared to Europe, the US and the North American market have a completely different understanding of product marketing. Here, it’s not just about having a good product. Customers need to understand why the product is special and how it is used. In order to increase business growth, we therefore also need to draw more attention to AT here and make it clear why AT products are the state-of-the-art in the field of image processing,” explains Gretchen Alper, who, as the new Business Director, will successively recruit an innovative team that, together with her, will lead AT to success locally.

The opening of the new subsidiary in Boston is a very special milestone for CEO Daniel Seiler, because just like Gretchen Alper, he has already established and managed a company branch in the US in the past. “The US is one of the largest markets for industrial image processing and is strategically very important for us,” says Daniel Seiler, explaining the decision to open an international representation in the high-tech affine States. In addition to the further expansion of the sales network in the United States and North America, the optimized technical support for existing customers is a positive side effect of the expansion: “We already have some major customers there, whom we can now support even better locally,” the AT CEO continues.

AT has deliberately chosen Boston as its new subsidiary

The fact that AT is not leaving anything to chance and is approaching this big step in a very planned way is also evident in the selection of the location, because the decision for Boston was not made arbitrarily: “It’s not too far away in terms of the time zone differences. But mainly, there are many companies here that are active in optics or in machine vision. This means numerous potential business and production partners for AT. The region is also home to numerous universities, so there is a constant supply of talented people who are interested in the industry and whom we might be able to attract to our company as future new employees,” explains Alper.

AT is a prime example of the innovative strength of German SMEs. With the first smart infrared camera and the fastest 3D sensor combining resolution and speed, the northern Germans set the technological tone in their industry worldwide and now generate more than half of their sales outside Germany. The company, which has a workforce of just over 50, has always had a very global customer base and plans to double its share of sales in the North American market over the next few years.