in4ma & EMSNOW On Tour 2026 - Neways

Eric Miscoll (0:19)

Hello, from Berlin, Germany. This is Eric with EMSNOW, sitting with Dieter Weiss from Informa. This is our 11th podcast on our tour of EMS in Europe. We're actually currently sitting in Berlin at the Tech Expo, where we will be attending the Evertique Expo tomorrow.

But we had our last EMS visit today. We met with Neways, and Neways is an interesting company. Let me tell you, first of all, who we met with, and then give you a little overview. What number were they on our list?

Dieter Weiss (0:57)

They are on 62

Eric Miscoll (0:59)

Number 62 on the EMS & ODM Global 100 list that we put out. We had a great meeting here today in– well, earlier today when we were in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, the center of the universe, as it was described to us.

Dieter Weiss (1:17)

Yeah, especially due to number one, Philips, having been there for ages, even so they are shrinking now, but then we do have ASML over there, which today is the center of the universe.

Eric Miscoll (1:31)

Yeah, I mean, it powers everything and all the platforms that are out there wouldn't be possible without ASML. So we are very appreciative of that. Let me tell you real quick, we had– we met with three people here today.

And actually, in all fairness, we had dinner last night with two of them as well. So we had a very nice dinner they took us at last night, and we kind of began our conversations and covered some topics, and then did a more intensive interview today.

Dieter Weiss (2:00)

Yes, and I won't forget the name of the restaurant. It was 1910 A very, very good restaurant, and probably they wanted to impress us a lot, because this was an expensive place, and they treated us more than well.

Eric Miscoll (2:18)

Yeah, so we met today. Well, the gentleman who helped arrange most of this was Claus-Wilhelm Kirchhelle. He is with the Business Development Manager with the Neways, based out of Germany.

He was with us for dinner last night, as was Freek Deelen, who is the Corporate Head of Strategy & Communications for Neways. Then joining us today was Michiel Van Der Maat, who is the Chief Commercial Officer and also a member of the Executive Board. So I think we had the right people there. We had a very good conversation.

Let me start by saying, even though we're doing EMS, they try to avoid that term. They say we're not really in EMS. They consider themselves, they do advanced complex electronics. They don't consider it so much. They're doing printed circuit board assembly and they're doing all the services. But they always do complex, high mix, low volume boards that are very complex. So high complexity and they're very pleased with that.

Dieter Weiss (3:22)

Yeah, and let me throw in, they state that classically, EMS is just 25% of the business.

Eric Miscoll (3:28)

Of theirs, right, the classical stuff. And we'll get it. Well, while we're at that, Dieter, just jump right in. Tell us about what you...

Dieter Weiss (3:35)

Yeah, I didn't count it in my hat.

First of all, the biggest location is the Netherlands, where they have 1,200 people, where they do very advanced products. We even had a chance to have a look at their clean room facilities, where they do a lot of highly sophisticated products, including semiconductor packaging. Then they do have 2 facilities in Germany, one in Neunkirchen, in the Saar, and one in Eastern Germany, which is in Saxonia. Then they have a facility in the Czech Republic.

They used to have several facilities in the Slovak Republic, which they finally merged all together in a new building, and that new facility had a grant opening in November 2025 Unfortunately, I didn't make it. I would have loved to be there to have a look. Then they do have a factory in China. They have a smaller factory in Malaysia, which they just opened in May of 2025 Then they have a sales office in Milpitas, in California, where they are as well with a local partner helping customers on prototype business before they take over the real business. So all of that is very, very interesting.

Eric Miscoll (5:28)

Let me jump in before we get too much into what we saw.

The history of the company, if I may, goes back to 1969 It was founded by a former Philips employee, Gerard Menlestein. In new ways, he had a new way of doing things, I guess, and he thought he could do what Philips was doing, so he spun that out. He ran it for many, well, a couple of decades, it looks like, but they did an IPO in 1986 Then in 2021, they were actually delisted after it was bought by a family office named Infestos.