As you can read in the press release (LINK), CCS Holding AG will completely take over the German company Gohlke Elektronik GmbH (www.gohlke.de).

Thus, by this merge, we accompany our Swiss- and Asia-oriented services with a production site in the European Community and create an even more attractive range of services by a broader base of know-how and customers.

The two companies align complementary and can mutually benefit from customer relationships, production sites and sales activities to ideally serve our clients. We are therefore confident of achieving a competitive advantage in the tight EDMS market and will become even more attractive to our customers.

The merger with Gohlke will incur no changes. Mr. Marc Hefti, the designated managing director of Gohlke Elektronik GmbH, will be responsible from June 2012 onwards for the location of Hildesheim after a transitional phase.

As you can read in the press release (German language, LINK), the CCS Group will be acquiring a majority stake in the Swiss Adaxys SA (www.adaxys.com). Thus, by this merge, the new CCS Group will become the number one player in Switzerland and the seventh largest EMS solution provider in the German speaking part of Europe (Switzerland, Germany, Austria).

The two companies align complementary and can mutually benefit from customer relationships and sales activities. We are therefore confident of achieving a competitive advantage in the tight EDMS market and will become even more attractive to our customers.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your commitment to both Groups of companies and we look forward to co-operating with you in the future.

Unfortunately and according to various sources, reasonable precautions have to be considered when importing goods from Japan.

Via LINK our statement regarding the precautions taken by CCS (German language).

You can rest assured that we do our very best to mitigate any health concerns for our customers and employees.

As you can read in the press release (LINK), Zurmont Madison Private Equity will be acquiring a majority stake in CCS Holding AG, thereby becoming the largest shareholder in our Group. Company founder Stephan Schindler will retain a significant holding in the company and remain active on the Board of Directors. Our Executive Board will in future also hold a stake in the company.
 
We are pleased to have found a competent, financially sound partner with broad industrial experience. This settles the question of succession and the decision also establishes the foundation for taking the next targeted steps towards growth. Zurmont Madison has a solid track record in supporting and financing medium-sized companies. We are therefore confident that with Zurmont Madison we will have an advantage over our peers in the fiercely competitive EDMS market.
 
You will see no changes as a result of the new ownership. Both the Executive Board and your contacts at CCS will remain the same. We are happy to answer any questions you may have.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your commitment to CCS, and we look forward to co-operating with you in the future.

Due to the tragic incidents in Japan the supply chain management of the CCS Group monitors the impact on the supply chain continuously. The materials supply specialists of the CCS subsidiaries are in close contact with our Japanese distributors and manufacturers.

Unfortunately, even if the local production of most of our suppliers should not be directly affected, however, it is likely to most Japanese manufacturers to be facing various challenges such as electricity supply, raw materials, infrastructure and logistics. The extent and the consequences of the  
disruptions will become more and more evident over the next few days and weeks.

As an overview on the current situation we would like to refer to the following information platforms and statements:

You can rest assured that we do our very best to mitigate the consequences of the supply chain disruption.

The CCS group came in 2nd place in the nomination for the EMS-Manufacturer of the year in the category "development expertise".

We would like to thank our dear customers for casting their votes for CCS.

The demand for power management semiconductors is coming from a variety of sources.
Mostly, the demand will come from the notebook PC market as consumers and OEMs are constantly looking to expand the amount of time they have in these devices.

But also a number of high growth areas are coming from infrastructure replacement, newly built energy facilities as well as alternate energy markets such as hybrid and electric vehicles and wind and solar energy grid upgrades.

As a result, the market for power management chips is expanding 15 percent over the next five years opening up opportunities for growth for current and future vendors playing in this segment. By 2014, power management shipments will grow to 218.7 million units, up from 119.6 million units in 2009. And the future after 2014 looks bright as demand for these devices won’t be waning any time soon.

As improving efficiency continues to be a major factor in the electronics value chain, in some ways this can be considered as an emerging trend for power semiconductors and could drive demand even further in the future for these devices.

Source and more information: iSuppli – Power Management Semiconductors.

The members of the initiative "Services in EMS" of ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association) present with a new NPI brochure on their advisory possibilities and solutions when introducing new products.

Download the brochure.

NPI (New Product Introduction) is a range of services from the EMS companies with the aim of leading your product innovations to best way into serial production.

Allocation, an issue which accompanied us for over a year now and the end is only partially in view. According to information from iSuppli market research and other renowned institutions, the allocation will continue into the 2nd half of 2011.
Early detection and placement of requirements are essential to get the production pipeline going.

We will be happy to assist you in this regard.

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 EMS-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 Fluhmann takes over the leadership of the Business Unit 1. Up to now, he was leading the contract management of CCS Switzerland AG.
- Jurg 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