Since 2001, the prize is awarded every 2nd year and is considered as one of the most valuable awards in the electronics industry and an important benchmark for EMS companies. It is awarded in three categories: corporate governance, business processes and safeguarding the future. Link to the E²MS-Award website (German language only).

The CCS group was nominated in the category ‘safeguarding the future’ among the participating companies because of significant service- and process innovations and thus belonging to the top-3 companies in this field.

The jury was judging the competitors on the following criteria:
- the sustainable development and securing of resources the company needs to
   implement for its business strategies
- Innovation projects of technical and non-technical nature, their scope and
   initiation
- dealing with knowledge, knowledge culture and communication, both internally
   and externally (also about networking of the enterprise)
- environment, climate, conservation of resources and sustainable management.

Here you will find more information about the topic (German language only).

At this moment we expect an alignment of the delivery times as with autumn 2008. But some components, however, will greatly exceed that level and will be available only under even worse conditions due to increased demand and not yet restarted large production capacities!

Affected are in particular:

Further information about this topic: you can download a chart with a preview for the 4th quarter 09 including an overview about the actual delivery situation for the most important components.

Especially the automotive supplying industry in Germany, companies with demand for semiconductors, is threatened by an interruption of production. Reasons are supplying bottlenecks from the semiconductors industry. This is also pointed out by the ZVEI Association Electronic Components and Systems.

This problem arises with semiconductor manufacturers, because requested delivery dates on submitted orders are more and more short-term and production and procurement times are regarded only little. In particular, waver chips for automotive electronics are being affected hereof.

The sharp decline in demand in many industries, especially in the automotive industry, has led semiconductor manufacturers to adapt production capacities. In addition to the highly fluctuating and declining sales figures comes a lack of purchase guarantees.

In the current difficult financial situation semiconductor manufacturers see no possibilities to produce IC's (integrated circuits) on stock. Due to working short time, the flexibility in production required by customers can’t be achieved either.

Due to necessary lead and preparation times, short delivery times are not realistic. For instance, delivery time for the raw material for wafers is about up to 5 months. Then, depending on the technology used, the production process for semiconductors takes another 16 to 20 weeks.

"To ensure a reliable supply chain and to make stock production possible, customers have to grant IC manufacturers sufficient lead time through early acknowledgement and by settling purchase guarantees," says Christopher Stoppok, Executive Director of the ZVEI Association Electronic Components and Systems.

“Formatest AG” and “Elsuma AG” have been known for over 24 years as companies with services of high quality in the environment of the E2MS*- industry. As a member of the ZVEI-initiative "Services in EMS" we felt responsible ever since to provide you with competent and innovative solutions, throughout the entire electronics value chain. Due to a steady and healthy growth worldwide it was possible to establish more locations in Europe and Asia.

As a milestone in 2003 CCS Holding was founded with the introduction of all affiliate companies of Formatest AG and Elsuma AG. But the legal company names as for instance Formatest AG, Switzerland, remained the same so far.

To bring the group of companies in yet another step closer together, the brand "CCS" will now be put into the foreground and thus all affiliate companies will have a common market presence.

The most important changes for you to take notice of are the change of the legal company name as well as changed e-mail addresses of your contact persons. Below an overview that lists the new addresses.

Digital communication will also be running from the 1st of February 2009 on the new addresses.

The internet address is the same for all affiliate companies: www.ccsholding.com

Other address data, VAT-, telephone- and fax numbers are not affected by the change.

From 01 February 2009 onwards, we can’t accept anymore documents showing previous addresses. We therefore ask you to modify the addresses on time.

To align our group of companies even more with your demands, the employees of our companies are working in business units since last fall. These units are aimed at the individual market needs and your individual process requirements.

With these group-wide profit centres, we are confident that in this constitution we act to your advantage. We continue to focus entirely on our daily processes and thus it will be possible, for example, to further decrease the lead time. Also, the group-wide use of existing infrastructures will be enhanced.

Below you can see the newly created business units and its activities:

Business Unit 1: PCBA & SMB (Small Medium Business)
EMS standard business, printed circuit boards and devices for direct OEM applications.

Business Unit 2: diversification High Mix
Specialties such as coiled and wound products or electronic components with multi-market applications.

Business Unit 3: Projects & Lighting, in the future also medical applications according to EN13485
For your complex and unique projects.

By changing the organization, some of our fellow employees will have other or additional functions:

- Peter Sutter replaces Dr. Peter Schmitt as Managing Director of CCS Switzerland AG, who takes over the leadership of the Business Unit 2 & 3
- Thomas Flühmann takes over the leadership of the Business Unit 1. Up to now, he was leading the contract management of CCS Switzerland AG.
- Jürg Oldani replaces Peter Sutter as Quality Manager of CCS Switzerland AG and thus leaves purchasing.
- Patrick Oldani as a global supply chain-, IM- and sourcing manager takes on the responsibility for the group-wide purchasing for all affiliate companies.

We thank all staff for their services and wish you much joy and satisfaction in the new job.

With all these changes we are convinced to become a long term, reliable and competent partner to our customers.

We look forward to working together with you and to tackle any future challenges. We wish you a healthy and successful start into the New Year!


Best regards

Thomas Kaiser
CEO

The Design for Manufacturing (DFM) – manual contains recommendations about the layout of the components and the nature and condition of the PCB. If the described guidelines are followed we’ll have an optimised production and an eased feasibility of function tests (reduction of problems caused by insufficient access to test pads).

Therefore we can maintain consistently high quality, which is for the benefit of both; the CCS group and for our customers alike.

The document is not binding, but it is based on our experience and the IPC-standards.

Please contact our headquarters to get your free copy (hardback A4, language: English).

The good economic situation and the consistent implementation of our strategy is reflected in our company results for 2007.
The most important figures [in thousand CHF, no. of employees]:

With a total growth of 40%, the gross profit was increased by 26% and the EBITDA got doubled compared to the previous year. Total assets increased by 16.2% to CHF 33.84 million.
These results were achieved despite the fact that our corporate facilities were affected twice by floodwater.
Mid 2007 we became a new member of the ZVEI (Zentralverband der Elektrotechnik und Elektronikindustrie, the German electrical and electronic manufacturers' association) where we support the initiative «Services in EMS».

On the 1st of April 2008, we opened our branch offices at the premises of “Technopark” in Zurich.
The new site is ideally located in district nr. 5 of Zurich, a rapidly developing area with cultural institutions and commercial businesses. It serves our customers in the greater economic area of Zurich as a new local contact point. And in particular, we provide our customers with technical expertise ‘NPI’ on the spot.

REACH is the regulation for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals. First parts of it entered into force on 1st June 2007.

The REACH regulation is aimed at producers and importers of substances and preparations. It is also aimed at manufacturers of products and all others involved within the existing supply chain.

However, CCS-Holding as EMS-service company is not affected hereof.

You will find detailed information about REACH on the website of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA): http://reach.jrc.it/about_reach_en.htm

About 30 central-European companies form the initiative «Services in EMS» of the ZVEI (Zentralverband der Elektrotechnik und Elektronikindustrie, the German electrical and electronic manufacturers' association).
These companies hereby emphasize their performance throughout the range of services and commit to meet the defined quality standards. Since the 10th of May 2007, the CCS-Group has become a member of this initiative and is allowed to use the copyright-protected logo for communication purposes. Herewith we can differentiate in the market from more than 500 other suppliers.