Last orders before closing time: Start your own business now before Brexit kicks in

Setting up a business in Germany opens up a myriad of new opportunities. New sales markets, excellent infrastructure and a well-educated workforce. But how do you go about setting up your own business here? Here are the details you need.

Established in Bremen with the help of WFB: The medical technology manufacturer ECO is setting up its first European branch in the Hanseatic city. Doctors can use the Chinese manufacturer's instruments to gently treat tumours, thyroid nodules or varicose veins.

Travelling to Vietnam has recently become possible again. We have compiled five tips for business travellers to Vietnam.

In Bremen and Bremerhaven, the transformation to climate-friendly energy with hydrogen is starting. A conversation with Saskia Greiner and Dieter Voß about current projects.

In 2021, more than 90,000 trade marks were filed at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. Find out here how applying for a trade mark can help even very young companies to get ahead, what to consider during the prior trade mark search and how the application actually works.

At up to 5,000 degrees, a new smelter in Bremen produces alloys from high-strength titanium that are in demand worldwide. For the company behind it, this was a long-standing venture that is now paying off.

Trade and industry are Bremen's economic heavyweights. This is an infographic of the sectors, revenues and products involved.

Prosthetic extremities a speciality: GehProTec, the company run by Peter Wehmeyer and Birgit Greubel, manufactures around 400 tailor-made prosthetic arms and legs per year. Patients from all over Europe come to Bremen to receive help.

Bremen has a new vehicle manufacturer. And they rely on hydrogen as a fuel. Why FAUN's municipal vehicles protect the environment and ensure a better night's sleep.

Will we soon be driving Vietnamese cars? And why has the Corona crisis hit Vietnam much harder in 2021 than in 2020? More on this and a little preview of 2022 in ourletter from Vietnam directly from Ho Chi Minh City

Online trade is booming, and not only since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. We present 11 e-commerce companies from Bremen that are market leaders in their niche areas.

A year ago, hsag ON relocated to Bremen. For company co-owner Matthias Schmidt, the move has paid off: more than 100 employees will soon be working in the new offices in the Tabakquartier. How did this rapid growth happen?

Classic cars are collectors' pieces and investments. Anyone who wants one can call on the services of Michael Esin: his company, LPL Automotive, sources classic cars all over the world and brings them to his customers' preferred locations, via the Bremerhaven container terminal.

How will town planners and traffic management systems have to adapt when computer-controlled cars become part of the cityscape? These questions have been under investigation by the EU "ART Forum" project since March 2019.

One year after Brexit, companies are continuing to be severely impacted by the effects of the UK leaving the EU. In Bremen, this means a great deal of work for Ubbo Oltmanns. He is the Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany (BCCG), and wants to strengthen economic relationships between the two countries. He knows that Britons and people from Bremen have more in common than many may think.

Some people lose their speech capacity because of an illness that makes them lose control over their muscles. There is now hope for those affected by this: a team at the University of Bremen has succeeded in transforming the brain's signals that are involved in imagining words into sounds that can be heard via loudspeaker.

"It's basically a win-win situation," says Egbert van der Veen about the collaboration with the Northern Germany Innovation Office, which is supported by Bremeninvest. After one year, the Bremen-based satellite builder draws a positive balance - and wants to take an even bigger step across the Atlantic in the future.

Farm animals usually get soybean and fish meal mixed into their feed as a protein source. The Bremen-based start-up Farmcycle offers a climate-friendly alternative: It breeds the black soldier fly. Their larvae have high-quality protein. Feed producers like the idea.

Becks and Melitta may be high-profile brands, but international food and beverage companies also manufacture lots of other products in Bremen and Bremerhaven. Here are twelve examples.

What is Economic Development? The aim of economic development is to help companies to get established in a particular location (municipality), to expand and to run their business.

Bremen is a stronghold of robotics. From medium-sized companies to global players, the corporate landscape is broadly based. What is striking here is the numerous areas of application - we have 10 examples

Urban, sustainable and multi-storey – is that what the urban logistics facility of the future look like? We are talking to Markus Meyer, Head of Northern Germany for Goodman, the property developers.

Extreme reactions to new corona virus cases, the triumphant march of meat alternatives and business opportunities for companies in the environment sector – find out more in our Letter from China.

It's primarily thanks to companies involved in the aviation and aerospace sector that Bremen is also known as the "City of Space". This article provides an introduction to ten companies in this sector.

This robot's job doesn't start until the last member of staff leaves the store at the end of the working day: Roaming through the shelves, he helps physical stores to compete with online retailers.

Cargo bikes are truly multitalented – they are not just appreciated by private individuals, but also those in business. Bremen is supporting the cargo bike in business and trade with a wider range of initiatives. Here is an overview.

The cargo bike business is booming, as is the Bremen bike manufacturer Velo Lab. With a new production facility in the New Harbour District, and innovative bike designs, its founder Stathis Stasinopoulos is truly in tune with the times. A "test drive".

Alternatives to meat and fish, and meat grown in a laboratory, are about to revolutionise our eating habits. In this newsletter, we're going to take a closer look at this industry and showcase ten extremely promising start-ups from around the world.

The right location for a business depends on many factors - infrastructure, location, but also labor supply and quality of life. Bremen convinces companies from Germany and abroad with numerous location factors.

Bremen's Überseestadt (New Harbour District) is one of the largest urban development projects in Europe. Here is a selection of some of the large-scale construction projects that are currently in progress and will bring even more diversity to this area.

Peter Decu represents Bremen in London. He knows the British industrial landscape and is convinced that many companies have not yet ever started to feel the full effects of Brexit.

What effect will Brexit have on companies? Everything you need to know about the new regulations and procedures that affect customs duties and taxes when exporting goods to the United Kingdom or importing goods from there.

In order to attract companies based in the United Kingdom to locate in Bremen and to strengthen mutual trade relations, Bremeninvest, the foreign brand of WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH, has been active in London since January 1, 2021.

An award-winning pioneer – Bremen’s Cargo Distribution Center (GVZ) was the first of its kind in Germany and is still one of the leading hubs domestically and internationally. Investors and logistics specialists alike value the benefits it offers.

The northern federal states form a Green Hydrogen Initiative. The goal is the successful establishment of a green hydrogen economy to realise practically full supply coverage for all interested purchasers of green hydrogen.

The colours of the local football team are not the only thing that's green about Bremen, as you'll see when you take a stroll around its parks and open spaces. A look at the statistics shows that Bremen is the greenest city in Germany.

David Zhou first came to Bremen seven years ago. The Corona crisis has given the lighting manufacturer undreamt-of tailwind - and virtually swept his warehouse empty. This is not the only reason why he feels right at home in Bremen.

Our colleague in Turkey, Erol Tüfekci, has prepared a video – set against the impressive skyscraper skyline of Izmir’s modern Bayrakli district – in which he describes how Bremeninvest helps companies with their business in Germany.

How is Turkey handling the coronavirus crisis? And why is Istanbul attracting investment of nearly US$ 2 billion from Silicon Valley?

Bremen and Taiwan share a long-standing friendship. The Hanseatic city has been in close contact with the Asian island for more than 30 years. New opportunities in Far Eastern markets are opening up for Bremen-based companies despite the coronavirus crisis.

What makes Vietnam – a socialist state – so interesting to western companies? In this edition of our country newsletter for Vietnam we seek to answer this question, and we also report on the country’s most exciting start-ups.

The new Silk Road is China's gigantic infrastructure project. Small and medium sized European companies can profit from it - a new network will help them. We talked to the initiators.

For a long time, import duties prevented producers from selling anything other than raw beans to Europe. Bremerhaven entrepreneur Felix Ahlers supports a Cooperative which covers the entire value chain and has created 120 jobs in Ethiopia.

Companies that are largely unknown but are market leaders in their field – those are hidden champions. Which of these twelve hidden champions from Bremen do you know?

The ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Northern Germany is a new beacon project for the aerospace sector in Bremen.

In January 2018, WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City. Bremen was the first federal state with its own representative office in Vietnam. Manuel Kühn, WFB Project Manager International Settlement, explains in an interview why this proved to be a really good idea.

Bremen: Down-to-earth, yet always ready to surprise you. An attractive place to live, a city through which we can move easily and without stress. People from different cities and countries tell us why they fell in love with Bremen and have made their lives here.

A company founder lives for his or her idea – no distance is too far and no obstacle too high. Four foreign entrepreneurs in Bremen share their passion for their vision.

Jiani Chen recently moved to Bremen. The energetic young Chinese woman founded the start-up App CN in the Hanseatic city and is now looking to kick-start her international business. She loves things about Bremen that many locals would take for granted.

Sometimes you have to learn from other people's mistakes and trust your instincts. That is what Muhammad-Farhan Aslam believed when he took over his father's business. And it turned out to be one of many good decisions that he made.

AI, machine learning, neural networks – the topic of artificial intelligence is full of jargon. We provide some simple definitions to guide you.

Bremen-based Flyline can look back on two decades of success and expansion. The British Airways (BA) subsidiary began as a call centre with a 30-strong workforce. Today, Flyline employs around 400 people at Bremen airport.

Many companies fail to choose the right approach when it comes to trademarks and Intellectual property right protection in general, according to Bremen lawyer Dr Eckhard Ratjen – not just in Germany, but also particularly when entering markets in other countries. But with the right strategy, many problems can be avoided from the outset.

Almost half of all coffee beans imported into Germany pass through Bremen’s ports. Coffee roasters such as Lloyd Caffee and Cross Coffee have helped to cement the image of Bremen as Germany’s coffee capital.

Bremen is expanding. Several construction projects will reshape the city centre. The 2018 Bremen property market report – an overview of office, logistics and retail properties, and of investment market trends – confirms that the city is an attractive location for investors and developers.

To the south of Bremerhaven, plans are taking shape for a new business and industrial park that will fulfil strict sustainability criteria. Situated on what is known as the Luneplate, a site close to the largest nature conservation area in the state of Bremen, the park is set to become the home of companies operating in the green economy.

We don’t normally get to see Littelfuse’s products. And yet there’s hardly any electronic device that doesn’t require components from this global market leader. The European headquarters of the US firm are located in Bremen. And they’re far more than just a sales office.