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HQ Location in the Heart of Europe

The region's industrial heritage forms the basis for the current capabilities of high-tech companies in our digital age.

Preferred HQ Location

From Industry to technology Pioneer

Active location Policy

Over the past 20 years, Schaffhausen has developed into a preferred location for international companies. The canton has pursued a consistent location promotion strategy and has attracted around 600 companies to settle in Schaffhausen. Many companies have set up their international headquarters and central business units in the region. Today, these stand alongside innovative high-tech companies that specialize in advanced manufacturing or research and development - and are part of the local business landscape.

Where the first industrial companies ushered in a new era 150 years ago, today software sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT) are being developed, global marketing strategies devised and international value chains managed. The image of Schaffhausen's economy has changed dramatically: Whereas in the last century the region was dominated by the chimneys of the iron and aluminum industry, today it is the innovation drivers from the life sciences and medical technology or the packaging industry, which shape regional production with plastics processing or precision engineering expertise and are successful worldwide. 

Over the past 20 years, Schaffhausen has developed into a preferred location for internationally active companies. Thanks to the canton's reliable and active location policy, over 600 internationally active companies have established a company headquarters in Schaffhausen. Today, the many international headquarters with their various functions are just as much a part of the Schaffhausen corporate landscape as the innovative production and development companies.

Economic success story

Economic crisis, negative mood, lack of prospects: In the 1990s, the canton of Schaffhausen was caught in a negative spiral with high unemployment, emigration and falling tax revenues. Thanks to an active location policy, the story took a different course. Today, Schaffhausen can look back on an economic success story.

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There is more

By Gina Ochsner December 14, 2023
With viso.ai, founders Gaudenz Bösch and Nico Klingler reached a milestone in a financing round in October 2023 and are now at the forefront of the global tech industry with artificial intelligence.
November 12, 2022
Innovations deserve promotion and recognition. The most exciting and promising innovations from the Schaffhausen region are therefore honored with the IVS Innovation Award of the Schaffhausen banks. The prize, worth a total of 16,000 Swiss francs, is awarded every two years. The award is open to companies from the Schaffhausen economic region that have developed a new product or service and successfully launched it on the market.  The call for entries for the Innovation Award 2021 runs from November 1, 2022 to January 31, 2022. The finalists will be announced on March 17, 2023 at the general meeting of the IVS Industrie- & Wirtschafts-Vereinigung Schaffhausen. A jury will select the three winning projects from the final companies, which will be honored at the award ceremony in June 2023. Further information on the Innovation Award: www.its.sh.ch
September 22, 2022
For 15 years, the US agricultural technology group AGCO has its European headquarters in Neuhausen am Rheinfall. The team of around 100 employees oversees AGCO's various agricultural machinery brands for the European market and the Middle East. AGCO, the world's third-largest manufacturer of agricultural engineering technology, decided in 2007 to set up a headquarters for the European market and the Middle East. The choice fell on the Canton of Schaffhausen. The location is centrally located with great connections to the important production sites in Europe. Here they already knew the Schaffhausen GVS - the main importer for the Swiss market - and here they also found an international environment in which the future team could feel at ease, explains Frédéric Devienne. Devienne himself built up the location as Vice President and regional leader. In Neuhausen am Rheinfall, AGCO looks after brand management, strategy development, purchasing, aftersales, sales and marketing for Fendt, Valtra or Massey Ferguson agricultural machinery. Central functions such as finances and HR are also located there. Convinced of Schaffhausen as a location 15 years after the company was founded, Frédéric Devienne and Torsten Dehner, Senior Vice President and general manager for Fendt and Valtra, sit at AGCO's headquarters in Neuhausen am Rheinfall and look back on the initial days. Both have helped to form the AGCO team. Together with the team, they have developed the new European headquarters into a central part of the entire concern. "In the meantime, our Schaffhausen headquarters generates around 50 per cent of sales with its activities in Europe and the Middle East," explains Frédéric Devienne. "We feel really comfortable as AGCO in the Canton of Schaffhausen. We appreciate the business-friendly attitude, the exchange with the Business Promotion, the government or the authorities very much. As a company, we have found ideal conditions here." As the next step towards a successful future, AGCO is inaugurating a new office world for the team of around 100 at its headquarters in Neuhausen am Rheinfall. In a collaborative working environment, they want to work together even better and develop new ideas for the AGCO brand world. "Together with the team, we are looking forward to this opening and further successful years in Schaffhausen," both explain.

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I make your day! We serve as a «One-Stop-Shop» for establishing a new location or expansion project in Schaffhausen.

Adrian Stettler

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