EMS@C-LEVEL
As Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast Company and SCOOP writer, Philip Stoten, continues to talk to EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) executives he learns more about their individual and collective experiences and their expectations for their own businesses and for the entire electronic manufacturing industry.
EMS@C-LEVEL
So You Think It’s “Just A Cable”? Think Again, with WERAP Group CSO Markus Hoffmann (Eric)
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The quiet parts make or break high‑reliability programs. EMSNOW's Eric Miscoll sat down on the Productronica 2025 floor with WERAP Group's Chief Sales Officer Marcus Hoffmann to unpack how our Swiss‑based EMS group is building a dedicated aerospace and defense hub by adding a Lake Constance specialist in cabling and box build—and why that matters for schedules, certifications, and mission success. From EN 9100 qualification to the realities of MIL, DIN, and NATO standards, we dig into what it takes to scale precision interconnects that most people never see but every aircraft and satellite relies on.
We walk through the deal timeline, why the team kept the company as an add‑on rather than folding it in, and how a hub model concentrates know‑how without diluting rigor. Marcus explains how cabling moved from a late‑stage purchase to a design‑critical subsystem: routing, shielding, weight, and environmental factors shape avionics performance, and tiny misses in crimping or coating can stall an entire program. By uniting PCBA, inductives, certified harnesses, and box build under one accountable source, we outline a path to simpler audits, stronger documentation, and faster industrialization for complex LRUs and payload modules.
You’ll also hear a candid strategy view: double down on healthcare, defense, and industrial markets, skip high‑volume automotive and consumer, and grow through targeted add‑ons that deepen capability rather than chase breadth. With a strong inherited customer base and plans to partner for R&D in Southeast Europe, we’re moving toward true turnkey while staying aligned to high‑reliability requirements. If you care about reliability, certification, and supply chain clarity in aerospace manufacturing, this conversation brings the details that actually move the needle.
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EMS@C-Level is hosted by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Global Electronics Association (https://www.electronics.org)
You can see video versions of all of the EMS@C-Level pods on our YouTube playlist.
Live From Productronica 2025
SPEAKER_00Hey there, this is Eric Miskell with EMS Now. I'm on the show floor of Protoctronica 2025 with Marcus Hoffman with Weave Rap. Good to see you, Eric. Always a pleasure. Before we begin, I there's some news I wanted to ask you about. Give everybody the quick elevator speech about who we are at first.
Who VERAP Is And Where It Plays
SPEAKER_01Perfect. I like to do that. So VERAP is an EMS company headquartered in Switzerland. We have six sites in Europe, mainly for electronics, for inductive goods, for cabling, and for box build. And uh in the end of the day, we are penetrating markets like the healthcare market, the defense market, and the industry. Yep.
Clarifying The Acquisition Rumor
SPEAKER_00Excellent. Good overview. You just announced an acquisition. People may not know this, but they just acquired Flex. No, that's not an acquisition that uh and it in the process created a new division, is it? Correct, correct, correct. Tell us the story.
How The Deal Came Together
Entering Aerospace And Defense With EN 9100
SPEAKER_01Thank you for the chance to tell a little bit about that. So, yeah, it's true. So in May this year, we got engaged with a company from Lake Constance. Um, a current customer of us told us that there is some uh generation change within uh the company, that the uh owners and founders want to sell the company. Uh from then onwards, we started to do billion jets, we started the activities with them, and uh in September we had the closing. So 1st of January 2026, it's um taking over into the Verab Aerospace and Defense GmbH, which is a limited in Germany. And uh yeah, basically, these guys are very much experts in cabling and in box build for aerospace, civil avionics, military applications, but also satellite technology. So quite an interesting step forward in Verab, as we already have cabling, but the cabling we already have in Serbia and in Germany, it's more related to industrial application. This one is really bringing us forward into the aerospace in defense, and from now onwards, we also are EN 9100 qualified. That's excellent.
Strategy: Hub Model And Standards
SPEAKER_00Now it is a new division, right? Is that it's gonna be called the the military and defense? Yeah, that's what you should be asking. You had business in that sector before, or is this okay? But this will just all be accentuated.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that the plan we have is that we are uh combining uh the technologies we already have, and since we are uh having this company not as an integration target into the WeraProup, but as an add-on, we really want to um have a baseline in Germany where we can bring in all that kind of business from aerospace and from defense. And Eric, as you know, especially in defense technologies, yeah, you have the MIL standards, you have the VN standards in Germany, you have the NATO standards and so on. We definitely need to have something like uh a tech center, a hub, where we all combine with that technologies with this know-how and then spread it over our uh footprint in our group.
SPEAKER_00So, what else do you I mean I can see the capabilities? Is it just facility-wise adds one facility was? I don't know what their footprint is.
Lake Constance Roots And Expertise
Sales Synergies And Upselling Plans
SPEAKER_01No, it's one facility. Okay, and basically the company originally was founded in the year 2000. Um, the owners, uh maybe interesting also for your audiences, Lake Constant is known for a hotspot for aerospace civil area, and it's a difference for a very long time. The previous owner and founder he worked for several companies in his life, then founded the company in 2000, and then ramped up a business, especially for cables and uh box build for these kind of companies in the region, but also all over Europe and all over Germany. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So, as a chief sales officer, what does this now allow you to do in the market?
SPEAKER_01Um we can create synergies, we can create um better technology setups, we try to do upselling and uh um yeah, yeah, upselling in a way that we can integrate um the certification now how from this site into the technologies uh we have beside that. Yeah, and in the end of the day, um we also bought in, of course, a customer page, which is very strong. And this is one of my tasks for the early 2026, uh, to get engaged with these customers as well, yeah, to show them what the group is able to do. And hey, by the way, it's always good to have uh a common source who takes care beside having five or six different suppliers. This is what I try to combine with them.
SPEAKER_00And if what you said that they were the company that was acquired, they did the cabling and the the the uh box bill, that means somebody's doing PCBA in there somewhere, right?
SPEAKER_01Correct, correct, yeah. Most likely, so because um of course um there is applications like the munition we do where you don't have electronics in, but this is to be honest, quite seldom. So as you said, if if there is a cable, quite likely there will be also electronics somewhere.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, there's something there, right? And and that's um this is oh yeah, I like it competitively, obviously it strengthens the cable side quite dramatically for Europe. How is that market in Europe currently?
SPEAKER_01Um, to be honest, before I joined Vera, I was mainly really on the PCBA side. But what I learned during the last couple of months and the last two years is that especially cables for applications in defense and also in civil avionics is something which is um, in my opinion, a bit underrated on the market. Maybe it's because when you talk with engineers, they're finishing the design for the PCBAs, and often it's okay, by the way, somehow we should plug it in as well. Right. And this is something we can offer to our customers as well. So we can not just do the assembly, but we can also help in industrialization and in RAD activities for cables.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And um, yeah, not telling our competitors too much, but cabling is quite interesting. By the way, same as inductive goods.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and it's also very complex, and it's the thing that the consumers or the public never sees, right?
European Footprint And Growth Filter
SPEAKER_01Correct, correct.
SPEAKER_00We get in that elevator and we trust everything's going up and down, and behind the panel, it's very, very complex. And that's obviously in all electronics products.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if you, for example, open a uh Airbus helicopter uh and to take a uh see the cable hernesses, they're huge, they're kilometer-wise cables, and in the end of the day, this is something which seems to be very easy, but if the crimping is not done properly, if the coating is not properly, then yeah, it's not working.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, nothing works, right? Correct. So exciting news. Congratulations on that. More to come.
Vertical Integration And R&D Ambitions
SPEAKER_01Definitely. So um we now have our European footprint in a way we wanna like to have him. We're always open for additional add-ons. So if there is something on the marked which seems to be interesting, which seems to give us a business case, we never say no to check it out. So we are always open to check several other targets in our group. The only constance we have is that we wanna only penetrate the markets I mentioned before. We are not so much willing to go into the automotive world or into the consumer electronics. But if there is any way to grow or to becoming more bigger with that kind of uh technologies, we do. And as I told you last time in the NDU as well, one more thing we might announce somewhere in the end of uh 2025, we more go into the vertical integration concerning the RD activities. So product design is something we cannot do by today, but we are quite likely to team up with uh company from uh Southeast Europe, and that also gives us then the full turnkey in the end of the day, hopefully.
SPEAKER_00No, that's exciting. You know, and I like what you said there too about you know sticking in your lane, sticking to your sector. So we were talking about that off-camera before. You know, EMS of old would do any business is good business. The reality is it isn't, right? You need to be good at what you do, stay true to who you are in the sectors, and say no to those other opportunities that undoubtedly come your way.
Focused Sector Strategy And Closing
SPEAKER_01Definitely. And you know, there is always two sides to the coin. So, in the end of the day, if there is companies who are having the machinery prepared for extremely high volumes for automotive specifications for the certification, okay, go ahead. So, sooner or later, maybe this marking will pick up again as well. But in my opinion, believe that it's always a bit, let's say, not so clear to the customer base if you are trying to be in everywhere. So, better as you say, stay in your lane, do what you can do the best. Try to get better with that. And if there is opportunities left and right, check it out. But always at least the compass should be always uh guide you to the same direction. Yep. Maybe with some U-turns, but always going at least to the same direction.
SPEAKER_00It's like an airplane doesn't fly straight, right? It always adjusts course, so it's the same type of thing. Um, I expect to do another interview with you next year where you're gonna give us some more news and your updates. It's an impressive company, continues to grow, and I wish you success.
SPEAKER_01Thank you very much. Eric