Posted Jul 5, 2017, 9:13 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Philadelphia
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Four European companies pick Philadelphia for U.S. headquarters
Four European companies with products including military apparel, software and electric cars have selected Philadelphia as their U.S. headquarters and will open offices here later this year, the Philadelphia Department of Commerce confirmed.
Two of the four are direct result of the Commerce Department's six-day trade and investment mission to Europe last September. Here is a breakdown on each company:
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• Tactical Pro USA from Italy sells military apparel such as gun accessories, clothing, tactical lights as well as medical, rescue and communications equipment.
CEO Pierangelo Pluchino, who has worked for Fiat Group, BMW Ggroup and Pirelli Tires, started TacticalPro Italia out of his basement in Laveno, Italy in 2013 and claims now to be one of the five most recognizable tactical gear distributors in Italy.
Pluchino started a second, related company, ODIN Tactical, which produces original tactical gear rather than distributing the products of other manufacturers.
Because the economic outlook in the U.S. is stronger than in Europe, Pluchino started a feasibility analysis on opening an American office. He narrowed down his choices to three states and ultimately selected Philadelphia due to the relationships established with city and state officials and the potential for collaboration with local colleges and universities on research and development — specifically citing Drexel University’s Center for Functional Fabrics.
Tactical Pro USA, as it will be known, will have elements of both of Pluchino’s startups. The plan is to open a temporary office in King of Prussia within two months before finding a permanent home in Philadelphia within the next year or two. He said the company would like to have 40 or more employees within its first three years of operations here.
“I want to be realistic and not make promises that I cannot keep,” said Pluchino, who will relocate his family here within a few years. “We will start with an office but then we hope to have a factory with logistics and production.”
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• Clem is a French company founded in 2010 that bills itself as the first electric vehicle sharing operator to offer carpooling via its user interface. The platform for managing eco-mobility stations can be accessed via the web or a smartphone application.
Based in Paris, Clem was founded in 2010 and essentially provides three services: car sharing, car pooling and car charging. Clem’s platform is designed for companies, shared housing (social housing landlords and eco-districts) and urban outskirts and rural communities that wish to offer mobility services.
Clem spokeswoman Ariane Zenker said the company hopes to move into space at the Philadelphia Navy Yard sometime this coming winter. It sees that as a perfect urban outskirts location for its charging stations and cars, which can run around 100 miles before needing a new charge. Zenker said it also plans to have a car and charging station at Philadelphia International Airport.
Through Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), Clem will put on a demonstration for potential customers. Zenker said Philadelphia was deemed a good choice for the company’s first U.S. site because of the Navy Yard’s location on the outskirts of the city and the large population of millennials, who are the biggest consumers of electric cars.
Clem plans to start with a handful of employees but Zenker said if it catches on, it will hire more sales and engineering professionals.
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• LambaWerk is a German company that produces software dealing with Medicaid and Medicare for healthcare payers and providers. Because the product can only be marketed and sold in the U.S. it needed to have an office on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Philadelphia Commerce Department officials met the company’s executives during last fall’s trade mission.
Based in Berlin, the company was founded two years ago. LambaWerk will be creating a U.S. subsidiary, called EDI.healthcare that will be located at 200 S. Broad Street.
Business Manager Volker Ullrich said Philadelphia possesses all three things LambaWerk was seeking in a U.S. headquarters. It is in Eastern Standard Time, which allows maximum time for communications with its German headquarters. While Philadelphia International Airport does not have a direct flight to Berlin, Ullrich said employees can fly into Newark, N.J. and hop on public transportation from there. And there is also an educated workforce from which to hire employees. Lauren Swartz, the Commerce Department’s director of international investment, said the company plans to hire 10 employees in its first year.
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• Cave Digital, a Portuguese software company focused on corporate governance products, chose Philadelphia over New York after a chance encounter with Philadelphia Commerce Director Harold Epps on last fall’s trade mission.
While the bulk of the trade mission was spent in Germany, Epps visited Portugal to meet with officials and business leaders from the city of Sintra, a visit that emanated from Philadelphia being classified in 2015 as a World Heritage City. Sintra also holds that rare distinction and its mayor visited Philadelphia two years ago.
So Epps was returning the favor, taking part in a meeting aimed at evaluating the business and investment potential for Sintra in Philadelphia. As a result, Cave Digital officials told Epps that they were visiting New York the next week to explore where to set up their U.S. office. Several visits later, it chose Philadelphia over New York to entered the U.S. market with its product, Smart Governance.
Joao Costa of Cave Digital said the company wanted to be in the Northeast corridor and liked that Philadelphia was close to New York and Washington and is home to a variety of colleges and universities.
“We are always thinking longterm and the future leaders of our company are in colleges and universities,” Costa said.
Cave Digital has clients in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. In the U.S., it has clients in Florida, New York and North Jersey and four open leads to add Philadelphia area businesses or non-profits (hospitals and universities) to its roster.
Costa said the company is weighing three options for the location of its Philadelphia office, including Center City and West Philadelphia. It will start with just a handful of employees and hope to grow with both sales and research and development professionals.
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Philadelphia officials have been busy trying to lure international companies. Several Israeli companies have set up shop and a recent trade mission to China and South Korea produced reciprocal visits.
http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/...companies-pick-philadelphia-for-u-s.html
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