German President Gauck visits KARL STORZ production facility in Estonia

Tuttlingen (DE)/ Tallinn (Estonia), July 10, 2013: During his state visit to the Republic of Estonia, German President Gauck and the accompanying business delegation visited the Estonian subsidiary of the German medical device manufacturer KARL STORZ Endoscope (Tuttlingen) as an example of successful German-Estonian collaboration.

Karl-Christian Storz, a member of the Management Board, traveled to Tallinn as well to help the Estonian team welcome the German president.

During his tour of the production facility, the German president gained insight into the production processes for high-tech products such as flexible and rigid video endoscopes, including the advanced 3D laparoscope. The tour particularly focused on presenting technical expertise in precision mechanics, optics, and microelectronics and demonstrating the application of the products using medical training models.

Karl-Christian Storz commented on the visit and the importance of German-Estonian collaboration: “It is an extraordinary honor for KARL STORZ and for me personally to be able to welcome the German president at our Estonian production facility. For more than 30 years, our family company has been pursuing a strategy of international division of labor; in doing so, we have never been guided by low-wage considerations but solely by expertise and quality awareness at the respective locations. We have been producing here in Estonia since 2004, and this location is an important pillar of our global development and production activities, which are based in Germany, Switzerland, the UK, US, and here in Estonia. We believe in this location, its advanced infrastructure, and the country’s positive economic development. It is particularly worth noting that in Estonia, we can recruit excellently trained staff and have been able to benefit from the well-known advantages of the EU internal market since the country’s EU accession in 2004. In the future, the KARL STORZ Group will continue to expand global collaboration, as this is the only way to remain an innovation and quality leader and meet the needs of physicians and hospitals worldwide. Our Estonian facilities will continue to play an essential role and will be further strengthened and expanded in the long term.”