First stone laying ceremony, Sept. 6, 2021: The Fischer Connectors Group expands its global imprint in establishing a new production site and subsidiary in Portugal

The Fischer Connectors Group (*) is starting the construction of a new production facility at Paúl de Cima in the parish of Aboadela, Sanche e Várzea, in the municipality of Amarante near Porto.

The new site is to employ about 100 professionals in a first phase (with 40 to 50 in the initial ramp-up) who will create new capacities for assembling connectors and cable solutions. It will be possible to increase these capacities for up to 200 persons. The project allows a second phase during which, depending on the Group’s needs and over the next 10 years, the site could employ up to 400 persons.

“To sustain the growth of our Group which has been solid and continuous over the last years, we need to increase our competitivity, reactivity and capacity on a global scale,” said Jonathan Brossard, Group CEO and third-generation member of the Fischer family, during the “Fábrica em Aboadela – Empreitada 1” First Stone Laying Ceremony that took place on September 6th. “We have an ambitious vision for the long-term development of our company. The new site in Portugal is one of the cornerstones of our operational growth strategy as a global connectivity solution provider.”

The international expansion of the Group’s production activities logically supports the growth dynamics and evolution of its commercial activities, which started their international development with the establishment of Fischer Connectors’ first subsidiary in 1988. With the new production site and subsidiary in Portugal that will be operational by the end of 2022, the Fischer Connectors Group will have 10 subsidiaries in EMEA, the Americas and Asia-Pacific.

At the First Stone Laying Ceremony, Fischer Connectors Group’s CEO Jonathan Brossard, COO Emmanuel Rapin and CFO Cyrill Schuler celebrated this important milestone with the Amarante authorities and about 40 guests, including representatives of Portugal’s trade and investment agency AICEP and of the civil construction company DST, as well as the architect Alexandre Burmester who presented the building project.

The Fischer Connectors Group’s investment into the construction of its Portuguese production site is scoped at €14 million, of which €6.5 million have been integrated within the framework of P2020, a partnership agreement between Portugal and the European Commission that promotes economic development.

The choice of the location in Amarante was based on a comprehensive evaluation framework through the highly appreciated support of AICEP, in terms of industrial track record, cost base, work environment, cultural factors, and talent availability.