Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A), today celebrated the opening of a new Agilent Customer and Technology Center at the Agilent campus in Waldbronn, Germany. Agilent executives were accompanied at the event by Katrin Schütz, state secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor, and Housing for the state of Baden-Württemberg; Franz Masino, Mayor of Waldbronn; and Olympic gymnastics champion Fabian Hambüchen.

"The opening of the Agilent Customer and Technology Center in Waldbronn signals a continued commitment to the economic region of Baden-Württemberg, and a clever investment decision. For the strongly innovative economy in the southwest, the field of life sciences has significant importance and Baden-Württemberg is an ideal environment and growth market for research-intensive companies," remarked Katrin Schütz.

At the ceremony and under the motto 'industry meets research and development’, Agilent executives met with customers, suppliers, college principles, as well as representatives from the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Also in attendance was notable researcher, Prof. Dr. Christian Zwiener from the University of Tübingen.

Agilent placed strong emphasis on the involvement of the Waldbronn campus employees during the development of the site. Led by architects Vollack archiTec, the 50 million euro investment has created a place of open communication that includes spacious research and customer areas, a modern laboratory and training rooms, as well as open-plan employee areas.

"Waldbronn will become more international, and we are excited, together with the local hotel and gastronomy businesses, to host the approximately 2,000 trainings participants per year from the Agilent family," added Franz Masino.

Agilent Deutschland GmbH, managing director, Manfred Seitz noted with pride the efficient 19 months’ construction time that has created excellent prerequisites to drive analytical advancements with innovative and leading high-tech solutions from Germany. "With this investment, Agilent looks forward to this new facility further strengthening Waldbronn as a center of international exchange, from which ideas and innovations will come that will keep the company on the path to success," said Manfred Seitz.

Agilent president of the Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group, Patrick Kaltenbach, who attended from Agilent’s Santa Clara headquarters, remarked: "The Waldbronn division serves all markets in which Agilent operates worldwide, and has a leading product portfolio with excellent further growth potential. Waldbronn is by far the largest and the central site of Agilent in Europe."