Buying a company out of insolvency is one of those decisions that sounds bold from the outside and feels very different at 2 a.m. when you are the owner. I sit down with Carsten Ellermeier to unpack his first fourteen months leading Deltec Group as both CEO and owner, including what the automotive downturn revealed about concentration risk and why trust with customers and suppliers becomes your real operating system.
We get specific about the turnaround playbook in electronics manufacturing services (EMS): diversifying revenue away from automotive without throwing away the quality culture that automotive PCB assembly builds. Carsten explains why many legacy automotive electronics still fit the EV transition, then lays out the non-automotive growth lanes he sees as real, not hype: medical manufacturing with rigorous traceability, robotics and automation with strong German mid-market demand, and energy storage and charging infrastructure that rewards disciplined industrialization.
A big chunk of our conversation goes deep on vertical integration and digital transformation. Deltec is moving from high-tech PCBA into complete modules and products, backed by test strategy and end-to-end data. We also dig into the Panasonic partnership and the new guided manual assembly approach that ties together pick-to-light, camera support, traceability, and KPI measurement, setting up an AI-ready foundation built on inspection data like SPI, AOI, and X-ray.
That vertical integration story gets a concrete second chapter with the acquisition of a former Circor facility in Tunisia, adding wire harness assembly, cable assembly, plastic injection, and over-moulding capability alongside an existing SMT and THT operation. Carsten explains why the site’s free trade zone status, German industrial heritage, and experienced local workforce made it the right answer when customers started asking about plan B.
We close by zooming out to supply chain pressure around PCB laminate and how transparent forecasting and hard-but-fair relationships keep production stable.
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EMS@C-Level is sponsored by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com)
