Technology or countryside? Carinthia has both

Carinthia is often only associated with tourism and lakes. And the carnival. But that’s an image the country is rectifying now.

Carinthia has launched a new image campaign under the name “You know our lakes – now you’ll meet our pioneering spirit” to broaden its appeal as a business location. The campaign’s name signals the direction that Carinthia wants to go: Making all those factors come to the fore that went unnoticed so far – after all, Austria’s southernmost province has far more to offer than crystal clear water and beautiful mountains (without meaning to diminish the picturesque countryside). Outsiders often see Carinthia as a pure tourist destination and thus underestimate the province considerably. Carinthia is a high-tech region with major assets in the industrial sector, the IT sector and the manufacturing industry. More than half of the added value and almost 50 percent of employees can be found in the manufacturing trade.

Carinthia – It’s My Life! This claim wants to spread the excellent unique selling points and diverse opportunities as a business, work and residential location. One major goal of business location marketing is to connect sustainability with innovation and to put the focus on eco-economy, research and development, as well as education. The idea is to interest companies in Carinthia as a business location and interest people in the province in general. Focus groups set up in Munich (Germany), Vienna, Graz and Ljubljana (Slovenia) helped to define what was needed.

Promoting the business location

“Carinthia has much more to offer than outsiders think and more to offer than people know about us. That’s something we have to tell the world,” says Martin Gruber, member of Carinthia’s provincial government. He believes that the province’s economy received a boost from the new campaign and the new business location magazine, which has the subtitle “It’s time for your success story in Carinthia” and is translated into four languages. Due to the Covid pandemic, the deck has been reshuffled for Carinthia. “Digitisation has opened up many doors, supply chains have become shorter. It is the perfect time to invest in advertising our business location,” believes Gruber. It is therefore particularly important to show how business-friendly and investment-friendly the province is. “And when the Koralm railway is finished, Carinthia will have another ace up its sleeve,” he says optimistically. Carinthia has also become a trailblazer in sustainability and eco-economy: Busses running on hydrogen will soon be a clear indicator of this development.

When someone in Carinthia speaks of “economy”, “settlement”, “talent”, “innovation” and of course the “business location”, the province’s settlement and holding agency BABEG (Betriebsansiedlungs und Beteiligungsgesellschaft) is usually involved. “Right from the start we felt that BABEG could get 100

© Johannes Puch

Governor Peter Kaiser (centre) with Martin Gruber (left) and Markus Bliem, head of the Strategic Provincial Development Programme

percent behind the campaign and its branding. We were actually involved in various talks and due to its importance for Carinthia we are looking forward to a great cooperation with the business location marketing unit,” says Markus Hornböck, Managing Director of BABEG. The cooperation between BABEG and the business location marketing unit is very close and will get closer in the future, he adds.

Business location Carinthia

Carinthia, located at the heart of Europe in the border triangle Austria-Italy-Slovenia, combines high-quality technology and an attractive research landscape. Austria’s southernmost province is becoming an innovation hub in the Alps Adria Region thanks to its good infrastructure and a high research ratio. Statistics show how much emphasis Carinthia is putting on research: The South of Austria (Carinthia and Styria) is among the top ten innovative regions in the European Union. According to the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2017, Southern Austria is among the “Strong Innovators” within the European regions. In this category, Southern Austria is second in front of Eastern and Western Austria.

“Carinthia’s strength is focusing on certain fields that are home to businesses that have become European and world market leaders. Application-oriented research is another asset of our province,” says Hornböck. Carinthia is one of the European hotspots for Electronic Based Systems (EBS). These are key technologies for all modern applications and the basis for innovation. In addition to the excellent fields of study and education opportunities, Carinthia can offer a lot of jobs with internationally operating high-tech companies. International corporations with a strong foothold in Carinthia such as Infineon, Intel, flex, CISC Semiconductor and LAM Research are beacons that shine far beyond the province’s borders along with local heroes such as Ortner Reinraumtechnik, Augmensys, PMS Elektro- und Automationstechnik and Wild Hi-Precision. The Silicon Alps Cluster connects the industrial sector with research, education and public funds with the overall aim to strategically develop the business location. It combines challenges, strategies and potentials of a key sector for Carinthia’s future.

Carinthian success stories: start-ups

Conquering the world economy from Klagenfurt am Wörthersee? Yes, that really is possible, as shown by the two technology start-ups Bitmovin (see the following pages) and Anexia.

Anexia was founded as a classic Internet service provider in 2006. Today, the company provides premium, customised web

solutions and is one of the few IT companies able to hold its own in Cloud Hosting against Internet giants such as Google, Microsoft or Amazon. Founder and CEO Alexander Windbichler is one of Austria’s most successful young entrepreneurs. Anexia is an innovative IT service provider, offering a wide range of services in software development and hosting from 90 offices worldwide. 200 employees work at the company and generate a turnover that grows by a fifth year on year.

Cloudhosting, the provision of storage space for company data, is particularly sought after by international clients. Despite its international reach, Anexia wants to stay true to Carinthia –the high safety level of its headquarters is appreciated by US customers in particular. “In the current planning phase, we are working on several concepts and fathom different options. In any case, it is certain that our headquarters will remain in Klagenfurt.

What Carinthia has to offer

Carinthia c … is a high-tech region c … is among Europe’s top research regions with ample subsidies c … is among the group of “Strong Innovators” and thus one of Europe’s most innovative regions c … has a highly skilled and highly motivated workforce c … has internationally successful flagship companies from the fields of information technology, sensory technology, microelectronics, machine construction and manufacturing systems c … has the latest technology infrastructure and technology hubs such as the Lakeside Science & Technology Park

Klagenfurt and the Villach Science & Technology Area c … offers focused research facilities and forward-looking education centres c … is a springboard to enter new markets c … has numerous industrial and commercial real estate with ample additional areas available for industrial and commercial use – at good value for money c … combines a high quality of life for entrepreneurs, staff and families with a highly appealing technology and business location

© Alex Gotter

Alexander Windbichler, CEO and founder of Anexia: “We’re staying in Carinthia!”

The demand for our services is growing steadily and so we are pleased to continue expanding our staff. In order to adapt to this growth, we are looking for new facility options”, explains CEO Alexander Windbichler.

Carinthian success stories: flagship companies

One of the most innovative flagships within and on behalf of the Carinthian economy is no doubt Infineon Austria, headquartered in Villach and with other sites in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, Graz, Linz and Vienna. The Villach headquarters bundle the global business responsibility, R&D and production. The emphasis lies on the development of ever-smaller, energy-efficient chips for automotive, industrial and consumer electronics applications.

Flex, a manufacturing service provider for electronic components, operates worldwide, with 100 sites across 30 countries. One of them is the site in Althofen, Carinthia, as the flagship operation for medical technology within the business, producing and developing electronic modules and complete devices for high-calibre international customers from the fields of medical technology, automotive and industrial engineering.

Highly specialised technology all-rounder Wild operates sites in Völkermarkt in southern Carinthia as well as in Wernberg bei Villach. Wild is a well-known provider of optomechatronic systems, optical technologies and industrial technology systems. The Wild specialists develop and manufacture high-quality prod-

Anexia has more than ten subsidiaries in Europe and the United States with 100 international server locations, serving 100.000 clients.

ucts to order and guarantee stable processes throughout the product life cycle. The Wild portfolio includes products for medical & life science, lab technology, in-vitro diagnostics and analytics, laser technology, optical metrology as well as semiconductor technology.

Technology combined with timber

Weissenseer in Greifenburg is a family-run company that has had remarkable successes in timber construction. The WCB-Factory – Weissenseer Compact Building-Factory – is a highly compact, efficiency-optimised factory in which highly energy-efficient buildings and building skins (Smart Skins) are modularly manufactured in the smallest of spaces. Intensive research into the development of innovative manufacturing solutions in connection with the building material wood was the key to this novelty. A consistently sustainable concept that is attracting worldwide attention. Demand increases sharply as the WCB factory can be used anywhere in the world, regionally and directly on site. This enables forward-looking partnerships and new business models.

“You see, Carinthia really has a lot to offer and we have to spread the word all around the world,” says Hornböck. “We are convinced that Carinthia is not only the perfect business location but also offers an excellent quality of life. Our cooperation with the business location marketing unit will help to strengthen Carinthia’s economy and infrastructure.” ◆

Good to know about Carinthia as a business location

BABEG is Carinthia’s official port of call for foreign companies that would like to settle in Carinthia or want to expand their operations in the South of Austria. Information and networking are key factors, focusing on communication and cooperation – between businesses, research facilities, strategic holdings and education centres.

The team for international investor services advises entrepreneurs, investors and start-ups, and accompanies them right from their first idea to founding a company in Carinthia – and beyond. The free consulting service ranges from general information on the business location to support when looking for real estate and staff.

Babeg Kärntner Betriebsansiedlungs- & Beteiligungs GmbH Völkermarkter Ring 21-23 9020 Klagenfurt am Wörthersee | Austria T +43 463 908290

E-Mail: office@babeg.at