by Ekrem Duman | Aug 4, 2026 | Industrial Engineering & the Mittelstand, Startup
⚡ TL;DRFor thirty years China was the German Mittelstand's best customer: a market building factories that needed German machines. That relationship has inverted. Chinese firms now compete in machinery, components, chemicals and equipment, frequently with...
by Ekrem Duman | Aug 4, 2026 | Industrial Engineering & the Mittelstand, Startup
⚡ TL;DRTens of thousands of German family companies face an ownership transfer within the next few years and a large share of them have no identified successor. The consequences are visible already in rising insolvencies, private equity acquisitions of formerly...
by Ekrem Duman | Aug 4, 2026 | Industrial Engineering & the Mittelstand, Startup
⚡ TL;DRTrumpf is a family-owned machine tool and laser company that supplies equipment used to manufacture almost everything, including the extreme ultraviolet light source at the heart of the most advanced semiconductor lithography systems in the world. It is...
by Ekrem Duman | Aug 4, 2026 | Industrial Engineering & the Mittelstand, Startup
⚡ TL;DRGermany contains an unusual concentration of mid-sized companies that hold leading global positions in markets almost nobody has heard of: filtration media, label printing, gummy bear machinery, industrial fasteners, laboratory glassware. The pattern is...
by Ekrem Duman | Aug 4, 2026 | Industrial Engineering & the Mittelstand, Startup
⚡ TL;DRSiemens spent two decades taking itself apart. Semiconductors, lighting, telecoms, energy and healthcare were each separated out, and the remaining company is worth considerably more than the whole once was. The 2026 decision to give up control of Siemens...
