From CEO to Owner, Carsten Ellermeier of Deltec on How Ownership Changes Everything

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.

If you found this useful, subscribe, share the episode with a manufacturing leader, and leave us a review. What part of an EMS turnaround would you tackle first?

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.

Transcript

Welcome And Dell Tech Backstory

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 0:00

Hello, I'm Philip Stoughton from My House to Yours. Welcome to EMS at sea level. I am joined by Carsten Elemeyer, who is now from Dell Tech. Last time we spoke, it was uh something different, but now Dell Tech. Give me a quick introduction to Dell Tech um and the story as we go from you becoming an owner, so your acquisition of Dell Tech and a little bit of the history of Dell Tech before you before you took charge.

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 0:36

Hi, Phil. Great to talk to you again. Yeah, and now in the new role uh as owner instead of CEO, so CEO and owner, which is uh quite new for me just since uh 14 months. Um, but of course, uh really important step in my life. Yeah, and uh yeah, coming back, I'm taking over um Dell Tech out of a uh on an insolvency situation. Deltec was an existing uh top 10 player in Germany, very well known in automotive business. And uh this was also the reason uh why I had this chance, this opportunity to take over Dell Tech, because end of 2024, we had the uh they had the situation that the automotive market, as you know, breaks extremely down. And in this time, Delltech was focusing more than 70% on just automotive passenger cars. And that was the strategic fault uh to say. Yeah, uh, many, many years before that runs perfectly, and you had the chance to grow with the car industry and passenger car industry, but uh in 2004 the crisis was on the extreme point. Uh, if you have two-thirds of the turnover, and then I take the chance to to acquire the assets as a classical asset deal out of the insolvency and uh deciding switching from my C level position in EMS industry uh to be my own entrepreneur first time. Uh so it's uh uh really, really uh yeah, it's a big change, isn't it?

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 2:07

It's

From CEO To Owner Mindset

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 2:08

exciting. I'm kind of curious that just tackling that first of all. How different does it feel to be not just the CEO but the uh but the shareholder as well? You know, the uh the person that employs the CEO.

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 2:20

Definitely better, though. Yeah, definitely better, of course. Uh the uh the first nights and the first weeks, yeah. Um uh even if you are experienced CEO, you are a bit more nervous than normal, as you know. Yeah, so um yeah, yeah, of course, and you need luck too. This is the truth, yeah. Yeah, yeah, and this is defined and timing is of course important, and the opportunity. So uh at the end, it is an opportunity-driven decision, yeah. And then you you must take the decision by your own and said, Okay, that's my point, that's my time. Yeah, um, maybe this is my age, yeah, in the middle of the the working life, yeah, yeah. And with enough experience, and then you need also trust in yourself, and you need some some uh meetings with customers and suppliers, um, and many of them you know you know from your former network, and you need trust also on the on the stakeholder uh stakeholder, how to say, suppliers and uh customers, and need trust in these relationships, yeah. And then it starts, and I'm really happy after after 14 months. Yeah, it's fascinating, isn't it?

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 3:28

Yeah, and it's not a crisis, but some people buy a motorcycle, you bought an EMS company. It's uh it's a it's a it's a very interesting choice. Um I guess the first challenge that you had was to make sure you

Cutting Automotive Dependence Fast

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 3:42

had a more diverse portfolio of customers. Uh, have you been able to do that and how important has that been?

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 3:51

Yeah, I I'm happy to be successful in that uh way of doing diversification. Yeah, and we are now close to 50% of the turnover uh um with uh automotive passenger car business. So we are going in the right direction, and of course, uh the target will be not more than 30% uh in the uh three to four years target. Yeah, um but that doesn't mean that we want to leave the automotive passenger car business. I still uh think in in the strong and over Descartes successful uh German and OAM and European passenger car industry. Um, but point of strategic uh ownership, yeah, you need to have this focus on 30, 35% the maximum. So one third of the company should be enough. I'm I'm lucky that I had the chance with existing customers from Dell Tech to increase the relationship. Yeah, so the trust was there on customer side, and it was possible just in the first uh even in the first year after taking over to increase the business with non-automotive customers. Yeah, and of course, I could acquire uh new customers, um, of my out of my my history, out of my contacts, out of my network over the decades. Yeah, um, and it's uh a different kind of argumentation and first contact uh with existing network. If you say, uh gentlemen, I'm back in the game. Yeah. But it's my risk, it's my yeah, it's also my risk, it's my company. Yeah. Um, I ask you for a chance. This is a different kind of uh sales activity, yeah. But it but it fits. Yeah, um, I really like uh that it fits. It's it's giving me it's giving me comfortable feeling, it's giving me trust back from long relationship partners. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is my experience in the first year.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 5:42

Yeah, yeah,

Why Automotive Still Matters In EVs

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 5:43

and they like that you've got skin in the game, they like what you're doing. Just to go to those two different areas, the 50% that's still in automotive, is that transitioning from internal combustion to something that's more EV related? And do you find the relationship with car makers, for example, is changing with EVs over the prior relationship with um, you know, with the larger tier ones, perhaps?

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 6:05

Yeah, I'm happy that that also the the former business within Dell Tech was also um fitting to both uh technologies. Yeah, so um a lot of a lot of the existing products are in climatization controls, for example, uh, and in lighting business passenger car, which fits totally to all the BEV cars too. Yeah, so this was one of the strategic points where I decided that the risk is high, of course, to taking over an automotive-driven customer, but you are also in the new technology level for the next uh decades. Yeah. So this is also one point why I'm saying I don't want to step out of the automotive passenger car to business. It doesn't make sense. We have the knowledge, we have the experience, we have the context. We have to look about the other fields, we have to look about uh high performance uh charging infrastructure in addition as well. Yeah. Um but you have the the quality processes, you have the certification, you have the context to the markets, and you have a good uh uh brand name in the automotive market. Yeah, yeah.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 7:01

Yeah, that's hugely valuable. And when you look at the other sectors, the sectors that you're growing, the sectors do you expect to grow to two-thirds of the business? What are the focuses there? Um we're hearing a lot about an inflection point in the defense industry. Well, obviously, we're hearing a lot about AI infrastructure, although I don't think Europe's perhaps had the same value add that many of the uh Asian and American companies have on that basis. Which markets are you really um focused on?

Where Growth Really Comes From

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 7:30

Now, mostly all EMS are now telling the story of defense industry, and uh uh this is the normal way of discussion for the future markets for the next years. And I'm I honestly uh honestly saying, uh, of course, I'm interested in defense industry, but uh this is not a market a market which is lying in front of you, and this is not increasing such fast as everybody wants uh this business. Um, so so let's talk about the basics. So, Delltech is a medium-sized company, and we have a lot of um diversification in the market, we have a lot of consolidation in the EMS market, we have a lot of acquisition of medium-sized companies, and this is a major chance for Dell Tech. Yeah, if you're seeing the structure of the EMS companies in Europe, the medium-sized companies are acquired by the bigger ones. Yeah, and uh this is a good chance for medium-sized customers. Not everybody wants to be integrated in a big concern, uh, wants to have direct person, wants still to have uh a medium-sized supplier, which he knows the owner, where we have the direct contacts where you can drive in two hours and being and being responsible, and of course, having the size on the supplier side to have the the name and the decision and can push more instead of a big acquisition. So um, look, thinking still about mid-size industry in Europe, so about different branches. If we're talking about branches, um, DeltaC has also a medical certification, so don't forget about medical beside all the defense discussions. Uh, was not successful in the past in this industry, but have the knowledge for the processes. It's not such a difficult big difference between automotive in point of quality and traceability and digitalization of processes necessary to realizing the absolutely high end level for zero defect strategy. It is similar in medical industry. And uh, I have a good history in medical industry, especially in Germany. And of course, I try to push this market um in the future for Dell Tech. And besides that, I was successful in robotic and automation industry. Yeah, so there are medium-sized companies in Germany with um with uh robotic uh systems, with HMI systems, with um also all the building technology, yeah, and also the industrial battery storage uh markets uh is even similar, interesting, like like defense sector.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 9:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 9:54

And this is a wide range where I can enter in. And of course, it's it is not just one more market I search about uh to combine the automotive volume. Yeah, there are minimum three different markets I'm addressing currently.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 10:08

Yeah, yeah, it makes perfect sense, doesn't it? And I think it's there's some really interesting market spaces there. You talk about robotics. I know there's a lot of hype about humanoid robotics and the future there. But the transition between medical and robotics is becoming really fascinating and really interesting as well. And having the skills that the other thing I really like about companies that have grown up with an automotive foundation, with that in their DNA, they tend to be very good at their own automation, they tend to be very focused on taking the last few cents out of the cost of manufacturing of each product because that's absolutely necessary in the automotive sector. And

The Missing Piece Beyond PCBA

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 10:46

this is so that gives you a real base.

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 10:48

Yeah, this is um where we are coming from with uh absolutely uh big investments in high-tech uh machinery equipment, uh, in uh really high knowledge of THT automation processes. Yeah, so in point of PCBA and competitiveness and looking for the last sense to be competitive and on high quality level, this is uh existing experience and knowledge from Dell Tech, which I want to keep. What was missing? Uh uh missing was uh the vertical integration, uh the transition from a high-tech and and highly automized uh PCBA manufacturer, classical PCBA manufacturer, to the full service service or the full circle uh life circles uh provider. Uh, this is what was missing. So um there was uh not enough products and not enough focusing on complete modules, products, products, or maybe in the vision of five years, also systems. And this is the process I want to focus about.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 11:46

Yeah, and that adds a lot of dimension to the automation as well. It requires some flexible automation, it's a different strategy. But I know um from the automotive industry, you have the uh the skills and the way of thinking

Panasonic Partnership And Shopfloor Data

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 11:58

to do that. The other thing that you've done in that area is you um you announced a partnership with Panasonic. I appreciate Panasonic are very focused on the SMT line. But tell me a bit about that digital transformation strategy that you've undertaken with Panasonic.

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 12:13

Thank you. So Panasonic is uh uh is a really um important, if not one of the most if not the most important player for us in in a strategic relationship wise. We we are preferred integrator for Europe for Panasonic uh Connect. Uh we have the newest technology of SMT lines and also THT lines assembly from Panasonic overall. But we are going to gather the next step. We have we have developed uh even with Innovax every pick to light system and traceability and and cover all the traceability and OAE automatically and KPI measurement on the SMT side, um already done since one year. Yeah, so this was on a really, really good stage. What was missing? The next step was missing. So uh similar knowledge for THT assembly, similar knowledge for assembling complete models, including the test measurements of the testing systems, if it is ICT or FKT or whatever, until the end of the process. And this is not a typical Panasonic knowledge because they just have TH started with the THT assembly lines, and they use us as a preferred AEMS integrator to bring the rest of the knowledge in. And we develop it together with the uh Tunisian uh development partner. Uh, the company is called B4C Creation. Yeah. And with this team together, um, we do build the next technology in digitalization, traceability, and um the complete knowledge until the end of the project. Um with several functions. We will show that on the electronica booth this year and we'll announce it quite close before. Uh, we call it uh Dell Tech Guided Manual Assembly, the system. The system is a combination of many systems that you know from the market in point of uh collaborative assistance systems for the worker, but with complete traceability. So it has not just camera systems, it has not just pick to light, it combines everything from the THT component until the final product in traceability and KPI measurement digitalized. And this is a combination of knowledge of Dell Tech, Panasonic, and B4C.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 14:30

Okay, that sounds an excellent, excellent process to go through for the next stage of automation. I have to ask, because it's inevitable that people will ask you, is is AI playing a role in this? And do you see this as something that gives you a really good foundation to build AI on top of?

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 14:49

Definitely. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it is it it is AI. At the end, at the end, the process, how it is uh working, it is AI. But you need a lot of more data in the system to use the good data, yeah. You have good data to use the AI, yeah, and you have a lot internally, you have also the all the AOI 3D data and x-ray data from the from the products until so far, and you have to add that to the digital guided manufacturer um manual assembly system, yeah, and then you are in a good way. Uh um, but the question is right. Um, I would say uh 12 months earlier, maybe it is in the next announcement step. Uh yeah, but your question is 100% right, uh Phil.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 15:35

Yeah, yeah, it's an interesting foundation. And you talk about inspection data from historic data from SPI and AOI, they're fundamentally important. Are they Panasonic um SPI and AOI systems as well, or is that a uh a different strategic partner?

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 15:51

No, this is Wisconsin. This is Wisconsin.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 15:54

So they they have they have a they have a fundamental importance in this whole process as well, because the quality and the ability to harness that data holistically is just hugely valuable, I think. So exciting stuff. Good. Well, I look forward to seeing that on the electronica booth, and hopefully you'll have some representation from Panasonic Connect and VISCOM that we can chat to about it at the time.

Tunisia Expansion For Vertical Integration

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 16:19

The other news that came out recently was the acquisition of the facility from uh Circle. The fact that you've acquired the business, uh the Dell Tech business, and you're already uh adding adding additional capacity is really exciting. Tell me a little bit about that.

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 16:36

Yeah, capacity is one point of the view. It is uh it is not a secret that the availability of high technical uh people in Tunisia is really good. Um even the the universities are growing very fast. Um, in addition, the average age uh for industrial assembly technology is much better compared to the European countries. You know, the average age in industry companies. Um besides that, uh it makes the uh the next step for the vertical integration in competitiveness. Yeah, so uh if you have the automation and the digitalization concept for your for your flagship for the PCBA system, including THT and modules and testing systems, yeah, you don't have to forget the rest of the components which you need in addition to PCBA to build the final product. Yeah. And my decision was to look about uh wire harnesses, yeah, because coming from my history, for each for close to each PCBA needs a wire harness, yeah, so need a cable assembly connection, uh, and mostly is plastic ejection uh as well. So you need plastic cases more than metal cases, yeah, yeah, and this makes sense. And this new facility, this existing uh COR um uh facility was fitting very good. Yeah, there is an ST area, there is a THT area there, there is a huge cable assembly area there with plastic injection, with plastic molding, with over molding of cables for grommets and connectors. Yeah, and that fits strategically wise very good. In addition, it is in a free trade zone, so very comfortable for European investors, yeah. Uh, in 10 all uh duty and tax issues. Um, in addition, it was founded 20 years ago by a German investor, of course. The former owner of C Core Tunisia was Phoenix Mekano. So it is, in easy words, it's a German-driven company which makes the integration much easier.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 18:37

Makes the cultural better. Yeah, absolutely.

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 18:39

The cultural thing, language thing, and the integration working together with Germans um was it's easier to integrate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So absolutely, it's good. It helps a lot. And of course, there are expats too, yeah, there. So for many years. Yeah. That helps a lot and that makes sense uh for me. And even the customer side, uh, from my experience uh with uh being owner of one EMS FAP uh from the first year, 14 months, was uh instead of my former uh working stations and my C level, uh nobody asked me about the size of the company, about is there a second uh facility as backup solution? And of course, as new owner as Dell Tech with one flagship facility, uh many customers asked me what is your plan B? What is your risk management area? Uh what is your second facility? Yeah, and this is also the next uh checkpoint on my list.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 19:36

Yeah, yeah, no, it's important. And when I when I look at acquisition, I always think there are three checkboxes and you filled them all there. One is one is one is finding the right geography, the other is capacity, and the third is capability. And you're adding you're adding all three of those. And I think that's you know, that's hugely valuable. As you mentioned, culture within an integration is hugely important. So the fact that they're uh aligned with the German way of doing things, I think is hugely valuable. I wanted to zoom out briefly and just have a look at what's going on in the industry

PCB Laminate Risk And Supply Chain

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 20:08

generally. We talked a bit about markets, so we've kind of covered that side of it. But on the supply side, there's a little bit of tension around prone circuit board availability. I think that boils all the way back to laminate availability. And obviously, there are component and semiconductor issues. I feel they're just AI sucking the oxygen out of the room for all of us. Um, is that the reason behind it? And how do you mitigate those challenges?

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 20:35

Yeah, we will we will see what the rest of the year uh will happen on the market. Yeah, um, we are in an electronic year, in an in an electronica year, uh very often in the history comes some problems on the desk in supply chain in electronica years. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so now we have the next booming industry, which is a fact, and the laminate situation is a fact too. Uh, but we have still overcapacity in raw PCB manufacturing globally wise on the global market value. Yeah, this is a fact too. So if there is an um problem in raw material and it will be solved a bit better, yeah, the supply chain is getting stable again because we still have overcapacity on the world market on production PCB manufacture production side. Yeah, um, so don't get too much nervous so far. Yeah, of course, you need uh to be uh to do you need to provide to your strategic PCB partners long-term forecasts when available. You should give them the possibility to to give the real numbers to the raw material suppliers. Yeah, uh, in that case, you you uh you have to be carefully uh don't accept the price increases. Yeah, uh if they cannot survive, they cannot deliver. So being fair in relationship again, yeah, being hard but fair, yeah, and uh working with strategic. Partners to getting the real facts to getting really close information from Shengyi and King Board to get the information live and defining strategies. It is still possible. And of course, yeah, we just don't just have to look about the raw PCB manufacturers from China. Yeah, we have also look about the laminates. Yeah, this is this is the next learning effect. We very often have that. But remember, we had that also with talco uh tantalum pulver for tantalum capacitors, and yeah, and many of these uh uh problems um could be solved because if it is interesting to invest, yeah, and there is an AOI, the investment can be done very fast, especially by the Asian supplier base. Um and um don't talk about the Asian supplier base also only as competitor, see all the chances in this fast economy and this powerful economy to solve problems too. Yeah, yeah, their ability to scale is impressive. Exactly, it is impressive, and you cannot imagine uh as a European guy how fast they can solve problems if there is a business case behind. Yeah, yeah. Maybe the maybe the storage uh issue could be a bit longer, yeah. Yeah, um, and this is of course one allocation situation uh which is which is really tough in the moment and forcing some customers. Um, but as you know, not each PCB and far away from each PCB needs storage on it. Yeah, so it is a special range of the market uh driven by KI. And also this is a market with KA which will be stable and increasing very fast over the next years. And I see a stable growth in this market, and I trust in that, and therefore we will have also the big investments on the market.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 23:51

Yeah, yeah. No, I agree with you. I think I think we will see people scale to scale to meet those demands. The last thing I was going to say about that is you need to have as much visibility, you need to deliver as much visibility as you can to your suppliers and likewise to your customers. That's another layer of digital transformation in your business. So you have real-time data.

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 24:13

Yeah, this is a fact. And even the even the communication. So it is also part of our job as EMS player to do a fair and transparent and open communication with the customers in time, which are not focusing on a single part of their product, which is a storage or a raw PCB. They need to inform in time, they need to be in discussions where you must to do the early alert to uh giving raw materials approval for longer time uh and not pre-cash or whatever, and all these issues just to inform in time and let also the C level from the customers know. Uh, look about storage, maybe increasing the stock volume a bit, maybe uh planning on your customer side that you need to do price increases because if we're paying more, we are getting quantities, which is still a fact. But of course, in this market, in this global market, this is a painful discussion. Yeah, and you can just work with trust in this uh relationship on both sides, on suppliers, on customer sides. And uh at the end, then you will have solutions. Yeah, and finding it.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 25:23

Yeah, it just shows the shows the value of those key partnerships and and managing the communication and collaboration with those people in a very honest and very straightforward manner. And uh you're clearly doing a very good job of that.

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 25:36

I would be I would be more afraid if there is no business keys case besides be behind draw PCBs or of course there is no increasing market, but electronic will increase in each new innovation, so it makes sense for in for investments and similar in storage systems. Uh and that's me lets me feel comfortable that this is a short period problem. Yeah, of adjustments.

Wrap Up And Electronica Preview

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 26:01

Yeah, no, I absolutely agree with you. Carsten, it's a joy to speak to you as an entrepreneur and an owner as well as a CEO now. Uh, I wish you every success in the future. Congratulations on what you've done um so far, and I look forward to chatting again with you at Electronica, if not before.

Carsten Ellermeier, CEO and Owner, Deltec Group 26:19

Thank you.