BUSINESS BAVARIA

WHATS INSIDE

EDITION 01/02 | 2012

PA G E 1

5 MINUTES WITHWolfgang Jess, Managing Director of Josef Witt GmbH

Page 2

IN FOCUS: AUTOMOTIVE BAVARIA Automotive Innovations

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BAVARIA IN YOUR BRIEFCASEBavaria‘s Colourful Customs:Carnivalistic Diversity

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W W W. I N V E S T- I N - B A V A R I A . C O M

BUSINESS BAVARIA The Business Promotion Agency of the State of Bavaria

SMART GRID CITY – THE POWER

NETWORK OF THE FUTURE

Bavaria is driving the transformation in energy policy with investments in re-newable energy. As part of the ‘Aufbruch Bayern’ future initiative, the ‘Smart Grid City’ model project has been set up in the Upper-Franconian towns of Hof and the neighbouring Arzberg. The state government has assigned experts to develop new methods for storing energy and stabilising the power grid. The whole programme is worth seven million euros. The Energie Campus in Nuremberg, which was contracted to optimise the decentralised supply of photovoltaic energy to the power grid, is the scientifi c partner for the project.

For the Upper-Franconia region, which can also showcase key competencies in environmental and water technology, the renewable energy research pro-ject constitutes yet another important milestone on the path towards future technologies.

This year, the world’s biggest embedded systems trade fair is again expected to attract approximately 20,000 professionals from all over the world to Nuremberg: From 28 February to 1 March 2012, more than 800 exhibitors will present their technical innovations at the 10th “Embedded World Exhibitions & Conference”.

EMBEDDED COMMUNITY MEETS IN

FRANCONIA

Once again, Bavaria will be the most important international meeting point for a future industry and the driving force for further developments. “The Em-bedded World is the leading fair in embedded systems worldwide”, com-ments Robert Stabl, Managing Director of the IT Cluster Bayern initiative. The embedded systems sector is considered an indispensable future fi eld by the entire industry. According to Stabl, “Bavaria is an international pioneer in this fi eld”. The Free State is known as a centre of trend-setting system developments, which are utilised across many areas. Examples include the automotive industry, decentralised medical support systems, aviation and space technology, machine and plant engineering, as well as the power supply sector in the context of smart grid applications.

Whether in washing machines, parking guidance systems or mobile phones - embedded systems perform essential functions in almost any electronic device. As control centres in technical systems, they can process data and signals, monitor and control processes, as well as encode and decode data. These small electronic elements allow electronic devices to perform new functions; for example, in drive assistance systems, machine controls and medical instruments.

This year’s focus at the Embedded World is M2M communications, aka machine to machine communications. The objective of this sub-division of embedded systems is to link machines and devices so that that they can ex-change data without human intervention, for example, to monitor patients or locate machines and devices. Another highlight will be the Electronic Displays Conference, which is the most important European platform for display tech-nologies.

www.embedded-world.de/en

Bavaria is among to the world’s most powerful economic markets. With a gross domestic product of EUR 442.4 billion in 2010, Bavaria outranks 20 of the 27 European Union member states. Converted to

PA G E 2W W W. I N V E S T- I N - B A V A R I A . C O M

the number of inhabitants, this equates to a per capita performance of EUR 35,337. Bavaria is thus clearly above the European average – way ahead of Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain.

NUMBEROF THE MONTH

The Josef Witt group is among the leading fashion mail-order compa-nies in the future market, targeting the ’50 plus clients‘ in Europe. It is a company with quite a history: In over a hundred years, the one-man operation has developed into an international company with approxi-mately 2,400 employees.

HOW MANY CATALOGUES DO YOU ACTUALLY PUBLISH? We print approx. 260 catalogues per year; in addition to the two main cata-logues for the WITT Weiden brand with about 500 pages, the others feature between 120 and 160 pages.

YOU REPRESENT A CLASSICAL CATALOGUE-BASED MAIL-ORDER COM-PANY. WHAT ROLE DOES THE INTERNET PLAY FOR YOU TODAY?Currently, the Witt group is represented by 16 websites, both on a national and international level; the demand is clearly rising in all areas of activity. Our websites are still being predominantly used as order channels; i. e., our customers make a decision based on our catalogues, fi nd out about the delivery status of their orders online and use the shop to get additional inspiration. However, we assume that in the future, ever more purchase decisions will be purely internet-based.

WHAT IS A FUTURE MARKET ‘50 PLUS‘ CUSTOMER TYPICALLY LOOKING FOR?The 50 plus customer expects well targeted fashion, a good cost-to-performance ratio, as well as friendly and personal service. In the future, this will mean we will have to meet the high expectations of our customers in all sales channels equally - catalogue, internet and shops.

THE HISTORY OF MAIL-ORDER COMPANIES IN GERMANY IS DOMI-NATED BY BIG PLAYERS. HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO RETAIN COM-PETITIVENESS IN THIS ENVIRONMENT?The industry‘s major players have shaped the market for quite a while, but the recent winners are enterprises like the Witt group, which have consistently specialised in a target group or specifi c market segment.

HOW DO YOU ORGANISE THE DISPATCH OF UP TO 75,000 ARTICLES PER DAY?This requires a lot of experience, good IT systems, a modern logistics infra-structure and, above all, motivated employees.

HOW IMPORTANT IS BAVARIA AS AN ECONOMIC LOCATION FOR YOU?Weiden, in the Upper Palatinate district, has been our headquarter for more than a 100 years. We are fi rmly rooted in the region and do not just consider this a historical basis of our success in the past, but also as the key to our future performance.

www.witt-weiden.de

WOLFGANG JESS,

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF JOSEF WITT GMBH

35.337 EURO

5 MINUTES WITH ...

The proximity to the Alps, a dense network of suppliers and optimal logistics: Bavaria – as the cradle of global players Adidas and Puma – offers many attractions to sports companies. National as well as inter-national enterprises from the industry are moving to the Free State and from there are developing the latest trends and innovations.

THE CAR THAT THINKS FOR ITSELF

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Embedded Systems have led to major innovations in automobile manu-facturing. The Free State is considered the cradle of recent market de-velopments - not least due to its strong economy.

A car receives data from a traffi c light 500 metres ahead, which has just changed to red. An electricity meter automatically sends readings to the local public utilities provider from the basement of a house. What, to the layperson, might still seem to lie very much in the future, has already become reality in business and academia. Embedded systems drive future innovations and economic success. The automotive industry, in particular, can no longer do without microprocessors. “Embedded systems play an ever increasing role, especially in car infotainment.”, states Andreas Böhm, Project Manager of the Automotive Cluster Bayern. In future, research will focus on improving the inter-connectivity between autonomous systems and on the development of so-called ‘cyber physical systems’. Motorists will soon be able to, for example, avoid congestion or accidents by receiving information from other cars and real-time updates on traffi c conditions. “This constitutes a paradigm shift”, comments Robert Stabl, Managing Director of the IT Cluster Bayern. “The systems will be able to handle several tasks at once and interact with each other.”

It is not very diffi cult to fi nd innovative companies in Bavaria. The Free State of Bavaria is considered one of the most important locations for the advance-ment of these systems. Numerous scientifi c institutions, such as the Fraun-hofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) in Erlangen and the Institute for Computer Science of the Technical University of Munich are based here. In the summer of 2011, the Free State invited over 100 experts to attend a meeting to discuss innovations in embedded systems for the Bavarian innovation and cooperation initiative Electronics / Microelectronics (BAIKEM).

With its innovation and knowledge transfer company, Bayern Innovativ, the network Bavarian Innovation and Cooperation Initiative Automotive Supply Industry - aka BAIKA - and the Cluster Automotive, the Free State strengthens and promotes collaboration in business and academia.

As a member of the BAIKA network, the Munich-based Protos Software GmbH, founded in 1996, develops tools and applications for complex em-bedded systems. Among its customers are BMW, for whom it develops the software architecture for electrical systems and ECU tests. Timing Architects, based in Regensburg, creates software for embedded systems focusing on solutions with multi-core processors which have particularly short reaction times, such as airbag release systems in vehicles.

It is no surprise that Bavaria is way ahead of the worldwide competition, when it comes to embedded systems in the automotive industry. With a work-force of over 182,000 people and a turnover of EUR 92.8 billion, the automo-tive industry is one of the most important columns of the Bavarian economy. Numerous renowned car manufacturers are based in the Free State, as are their suppliers. “Demand is simply there.”, adds Robert Stabl. And there is another thing he is sure of: “It will continue to rise”.

www.bayern-innovativ.de

www.protos.de/index.php/en

www.cluster-bayern.de

IN FOCUS: EMBEDDED SYSTEMS, AUTOMOTIVE

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FAIRS AND EVENTS

YOUR KEY TO OUR STATEInvest in Bavaria – The Business Promotion Agency of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology and Bayern International.

PUBLISHERDR. JOHANN NIGGLPRINZREGENTENSTR. 2880538 MÜNCHENPHONE.: +49 89 24210-7500FAX: +49 89 24210-7557INFO@INVEST-IN-BAVARIA.COM

BUSINESS BAVARIACOORDINATION: ALEXANDRA SCHMIDHUBEREDITORIAL DEPARTMENT: WWW.TEXTBAU.COMTRANSLATION: WWW.TRANSLATE-ME.INFOART DIRECTION | INTERNET: ALEX PODOLAYDESIGN: WWW.TREIB-STOFF.COM

... IN MUNICH

F.RE.E22 – 26 FEB. 2012Fair for Leisure and Travel

www.free-muenchen.de/en/Home

IOMT17 – 19 FEB. 2012International Motor Cycle Exhibition

www.imot.de

... IN NUREMBERG

BIOFACH & VIVANESS15 – 18 FEB. 2012Worldwide leading trade fairs for bio products, natural cosmetics and wellness

www.biofach.de/en

www.vivaness.de/en

EMBEDDED WORLD28 FEB. – 01 MAR 2012Biggest expert fair for embedded technologies

www.embedded-world.de/en

INVEST IN BAVARIA ON THE FICCI – FRAMES14 – 16 March 2012 in Mumbai, India

INVEST IN BAVARIA ON THE MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS27 Feb. – 01 March 2012 in Barcelona, Spain

Your contact for both events:Peter EnglertPhone: +49 89 24210 7520peter.englert@invest-in-bavaria.com

BUSINESS CONFERENCE “BAYERN ÖFFNET TÜREN FÜR POLNISCHE UNTERNEHMEN“05 March 2012 in Warsaw, Poland

MANAGING DIRECTOR’S MEET-ING OF RUSSIAN COMPA-NIES AND SUBSIDIARIES IN BAVARIA14 March 2012 in Munich

Your contact for both events:Svetlana HuberPhone: +49 89 24210 7505svetlana.huber@invest-in-bavaria.com

CARNIVAL – BAVARIA’S COLOURFUL CUSTOMS

“Killewau, Killewau” - is the phrase you will hear in Dietfurt on the so-called ‘Unsinniger Donnerstag’. It is a tribute to His Imperial Carnival Highness ‘Ko-Houang-Di’, the regent and master of ceremony of the carnivalistic commu-nity. Since 1928, everything in this Upper-Palatinate town at the Altmühl river has been about China, during the carnival. That‘s why it is also known as Ba-varia’s China. Thousands of visitors fi ll the local streets every year with coolie hats, fake beards and shining silk costumes. The Asian scenery is based on a medieval legend: the bishop of Eichstätt is said to have sent his treasurer to

Fasching, Fasenet, Foscheng, Foosenoocht – there are numerous vari-ations of the term carnival and many regional traditions within the Free State.

Dietfurt, to collect tax debts. It was a trip in vain, because the locals refused to let him enter. On his return he grumbled to the bishop that the people in Diet-furt were like the Chinese - they were taking refuge behind their Great Wall.

At Munich’s Marienplatz, the coopers (Schäffl er) can be admired year in, year out as fi gures dancing around the Glockenspiel. However, in the fl esh Mu-nich’s barrel manufacturers only appear every seven years to perform their traditional round dances with green leaved hoops. This year, the Schäffl er will again be performing their traditional dances in and around Munich until 21 February 2012 . Their distinctive costume consists of green cap, red jacket, black breeches and leather apron. The legendary dance was developed in 1517, when a brave Schäffl er wanted to rid people of their fear of the plague. The plan worked, as he managed to lure people back onto the streets with cheerful dance steps, merry sounds and the help of his guild colleagues. Pub-lic life was reinvigorated and returned to normal soon after.

CHINESE FASCHING, UNSINNIGER DONNERSTAG 16 Feb. 2012 | 2:01 pm | Dietfurt

www.dietfurt.de/chinesenfasching/

SCHÄFFLERTANZ (COOPER‘S DANCE)Shrove Tuesday | 21 Feb. 2012 | 8 pm | Marienplatz Munich Last Dance of the Season

www.muenchen.de/int/en

IMAGE SOURCES P. 1: itestro - Fotolia.com | P. 2: www.witt-gruppe.eu | P.3: © BMW AG| P. 4: City of Dietfurt a.d.Altmühl

Chinese Fasching in Dietfurt

… BY AND WITH INVEST IN BAVARIA

BAVARIA IN YOUR BRIEFCASE