Strengthened sales and support

AT - Automation Technology is starting a new chapter in its 25-year company history and expanding to North America. With this step, the northern German high-tech company from Bad Oldesloe near Lübeck is consolidating its efforts to expand its network in the USA and thus strengthening sales and support for its local customers. 

The management of the location in the Boston metropolitan region will be taken over by the 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. Therefore, she knows about the cultural differences on both sides of the Atlantic:

Gretchen Alper wants to strengthen AT awareness in the USA

"Compared to Europe, the USA and the North American market have a completely different understanding of product marketing. Here, it is not exclusively 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 have to draw more attention to ourselves in this country and make it clear why AT products are the ultimate in the field of image processing," explains Gretchen Alper, who, as the new Business Director, will gradually recruit an innovative team that, together with her, will lead AT to success locally.

The opening of the new location 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 USA in the past. "The USA is one of the largest markets for machine vision and is a very important strategic decision for us," says Daniel Seiler.

In addition to the further expansion of the sales network in the high-tech affine states of the USA and North America, optimised technical support for existing customers is a positive side effect of the expansion: "We already have some large customers there, whom we can now support even better locally," the AT CEO continues.

AT deliberately chose Boston as its new location

The fact that AT is leaving nothing to chance and is approaching this big step in a very planned manner is also evident in the choice of location, because the decision for Boston was not made arbitrarily: "The city is not too far away in terms of time zone differences. But mainly there are many companies here that are active in optics or in image processing. That means numerous potential business and production partners for AT. The region is also home to many universities, so there is a constant supply of talented people who are interested in the industry and who we can attract to our company as future new employees," Alper explains.

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