Landkreis Stade - a seminal location in the
metropolitan region

In recent years Landkreis Stade became increasingly attractive to its inhabitants as well as to its companies. The number of inhabitants increased by more than 16% to 196.891 between the years 1990 and 2008. Especially young families settled down in the area. About 20% of the population are children and adolescents up to the age of 18, which is above state average. The high number of commuters heading for Hamburg is another evidence that Landkreis Stade is a popular living place which also offers a high quality of life.

Additionally, the attractive surroundings provide an incentive to companies. The communities hold a supply of industrial areas in high quality and quantity. The inexpensive industrial real estates, which are identified as industrial areas, industrial estates or mixed zones, reveal a perfect basis for enterprises. Moreover short-term approval times guarantee planning security.

If you want to know more about Landkreis Stade, then go to

• education and research
• infrastructure
• companies
• statistics
• service provider
• contact

 

Education and research

Local companies appreciate the advantage of motivated and qualified specialists in the region. Eight percent of the employees in Landkreis Stade have a degree. With that number the Landkreis is in second place in the metropolitan region Hamburg- behind Hamburg but still before Lüneburg. Moreover, in the field of operational education the firms have also a good position. According to the Institut of Lower Saxony for economic support (www.niw.de) the proportion of training (proportion of trainees in the employees) is 120 whereas the federal average is 100. Therefore the Landkreis lies clearly above the results of Lower Saxony, Bremen and Hamburg. These aspects demonstrate that Landkreis Stade takes a top position and has a top-rate situation for a further positive economic development.
Landkreis Stade has a diversified infrastructure of education. Additionally they offer a further training, for instance, besides secondary schools they dispose vocational schools with their close connection to the economy.
The Landkreis is a location for Universities as well. In 2004 the University 21 in Buxtehude developed a new educational concept in which the students cooperate with companies. This combination of theory and practice offers the students an excellent job perspective. Moreover, the University of Applied Science Göttingen is located in Stade since 2006.
The multiple supply of universities in close proximity, offering a variety of didactic and research areas, provides companies an excellent opportunity to gain junior employees and to use the knowledge transfer between universities and economy more intensely.
These institutions support lifelong learning and they qualify employees for professional requirements in the future.

Landkreis Stade is also a "high-tech location". Examples are the CFK-technology center and the CFK-research center which is currently under construction. Besides these two centers the location has facilities of high potential development and research for the field of carbon fiber.

Infrastructure

The industrial location Landkreis Stade is developing fast. An interesting aspect of the location is the existing offer on transport infrastructure. For example the industrial harbour Stade and the terminal for combined freight transport in Stade-Brunshausen. For both projects is planned a conversion of the capacity so that the efficiency will increase further in Landkreis Stade. The extension of the city railway of Hamburg to Stade connects the cities more intensely since the end of 2007.

Projects concerning the infrastructure in the coming years are promising. One of the projects is the Autobahn 26, running from Stade to Hamburg, which is already under construction. The first part from Horneburg to Stade is used since 2008. Another perspective is the crossing of the river Elbe in the west of Stade with a continuation in southern direction as the Autobahn 22. These projects complete the already existing connections - the Autobahn 1 Hamburg-Bremen, the ICE-railway station Hamburg-Harburg and the Hamburg airport.

This efficient infrastructure ensures a fast transportation of goods within Europe and worldwide.

Companies

There is a good reason for global players choosing their domicile in Landkreis Stade. Also a number of less known "market leaders" have been operating for generations in this region. Cooperating with their employees the enterprises develop products and services for markets all over the world. These are especially handicraft and manufacturing enterprises with a traditionally potent agriculture in fruit growing, ensuring a good diversity of branches. Today, these branches are still the pillars of the economy, even if the number of employees working in the service sector has increased in the last years.

The main focus lies on the aviation industry and its highly modern system solutions. The Airbus plant in Stade evolved to a competence center for carbon fiber technology and supplies Airbus with complete vertical tails for aircrafts. Expertise is also provided by Airbus in Buxtehude, which produces cabin management systems and serves more than 120 airlines world-wide.

The chemical industry particularly contributes to the positive economical development. Companies like Dow, Stähler Agrochemie and Synthopol have strengthened their site in Landkreis Stade long-term by investments. Against the background of the steady growing competition it is an honour for the location Stade.

The economic location Landkreis Stade also stands for less known, innovative enterprises specialized in mechanical and electrical engineering, food industry as well as navigation. Based in our region, these enterprises build up business relations all over the globe.

Statistics

Not only names and products show the potential of the region, moreover the statistics reflect that Landkreis Stade has good basic conditions for enterprises and demonstrate their successful work. This refers to the gross value added at market prices just as the employment situation, which have developed comparatively well. Especially the sectors of service, trading and transportation have contributed to this favourable situation. In addition, the labour market situation is also showing a positive trend. Thus the number of social insurance employees has risen by 12.1% to 50.582 between 1990 and 2007. In comparison, the increase at state level is at a much lower value of only 3.1%. There are more positive aspects shown in the unemployment statistics, for example the number of unemployed people in the region is below the state and federal average. Surely this is also an indication of the high quality of education and apprenticeship provided by different facilities, organizations and institutes.

Service provider

Landkreis Stade is a high-performance region, in which the communities understand themselves as service providers for their citizens and the domestic industry. A signal was set with the foundation of the Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft (Business Development Corporation) in 2001. The corporation is the contact for companies and business founders in search of a site and/or cooperation partners. Moreover it is also a partner for general questions regarding Landkreis Stade and a support for interested entrepreneurs giving information about public finance programmes. In these cases the Wirtschaftsförderung Landkreis Stade is collaborating with the corporations of the two cities (Stade and Buxtehude) as well as with the Technology Transfer center Elbe-Weser. Beyond this the corporation is in close contact to chambers of commerce and associations in the region, building up project-related cooperations.

Contact

If you have any questions, for example about statistics and industrial areas, do not hesitate to contact us here.

Wirtschaftsförderung Landkreis Stade GmbH
Große Schmiedestraße 6, 21682 Stade
Tel.: ++49 (41 41) 80 06-0
Fax.: ++49 (41 41) 80 06-15
E-Mail: infowf-stade.de