Global Market Leader up close: IHK and University of St. Gallen visit Jauch Quartz GmbH

In July, a committee from the Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg Chamber of Industry and Commerce IHK including Managing Director Thomas Albiez and Prof. Dr. Christoph Müller from the University of St. Gallen visited Jauch Quartz GmbH in Villingen-Schwenningen to gain more insight into the company. Jauch Quartz has already been included several times as a “Future Champion” in the Swiss university's global market leader index, and was recently named in the highest category of “Global Market Leader Champions”.

The focus of the joint discussion was the development of Jauch from a small family business in Schwenningen to an industry leader in frequency control products and battery technology. Thomas Jauch, company owner and son of the company founder, emphasized the enormous technological change that Jauch has undergone over the past decades. Whereas, in the past it was quartz crystals for the quartz watches of the Black Forest watch industry. Today the market is dominated by miniaturized components, which are often no larger than one to two millimeters. “It has always been our strength to keep pace with technical developments in the market or even to be one step ahead of them,” says Thomas Jauch. Another decisive factor in the Jauch’s success in recent decades has been the very early establishment of business relationships with Asia. “We were able to gain our first partners in China back in the 1980s, which was a decisive competitive advantage for us at the time.”

A highlight of the visit was the tour of the company's production facilities. While the production of battery packs had been outsourced to Bulgaria years ago, high-quality battery packs are now being produced again on the company's own production lines in Schwenningen. In this way, Jauch aims to strengthen production expertise in Germany and guarantee the quality of the technologically sophisticated lithium packs.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Müller, titular professor at the University of St. Gallen, emphasized how important it was to him to take a look behind the scenes of the award-winning companies. “It is really impressive to see how such family businesses are shaping Germany as a business location worldwide.”

Thomas Albiez, managing director of the IHK Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg, Thomas Wolf, member of the IHK management, Jörg Hermle, team leader of the international division and Niklas Lehmann, technology transfer manager at the IHK, were impressed by the variety of application examples in which quartz crystals, oscillators or batteries from Jauch are used. Timo Schmidt, a member of the Jauch management team, presented a wide range of applications: a magnetic battery for the early detection of congenital heart defects in the womb via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a wristband with a lithium polymer battery for detecting epilepsy during sleep or an intelligent fish finder with quartz and battery from Jauch.