Wolfsburg AG is a German

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

headquartered in

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony, located on the river Aller. It lies about east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the location of Volkswagen AG's hea ...

. It was founded in 1999 with the goal of enhancing the attractiveness of the city of Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg AG implements the AutoVision concept, which

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

gave the city on the occasion of its 60th birthday. It is a

stock corporation A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dicti ...

(

Aktiengesellschaft (; abbreviated AG, ) is a German word for a corporation limited by Share (finance), share ownership (i.e. one which is owned by its shareholders) whose shares may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (wh ...

) under

German law The law of Germany (german: das Recht Deutschlands), that being the modern German legal system (german: Deutsches Rechtssystem), is a system of civil law which is founded on the principles laid out by the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of G ...

, in which the city of Wolfsburg and the Volkswagen Group have equal shares. Today, Wolfsburg AG is considered to be a prime example of

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...

in Germany. Its activities have contributed significantly to more than halving the unemployment rate of the city of Wolfsburg.

History

The city of Wolfsburg became a lot less attractive during the 1990s. The reason for this was the regional economic structure: about 85 percent of all employees belonged to the Volkswagen Group in 1995. Over 50 percent fewer people were working in the

service sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

compared to the national average. In addition, other German automotive industry locations had a considerably higher density of regional suppliers. The city of Wolfsburg was losing purchasing power in the realm of approximately 200 to 300 million euros per year. The city's tax revenues fell by almost a third in the wake of the Volkswagen crisis between 1991 and 1994. Observers later compared the situation to that of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

. In the course of the 1990s, the city of Wolfsburg and the Volkswagen Group finally agreed on the idea of working together to deal with the structural problems. This was the source of motivation for drawing up the AutoVision concept. The Volkswagen Group referred to it as a strategy to "establish an automotive cluster". It was created with the support of the consulting firm

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

and included a wide range of ideas for enhancing the quality of life and competitiveness in Wolfsburg. One of the most important ideas was the establishment of an "adventure world" that would extend over the entire city. Measures in the field of

were intended to ensure a reduction in the dependence of the Wolfsburg region on the automotive industry, as well as the creation of new jobs especially in the service sector, thereby reducing unemployment. The city of Wolfsburg and the Volkswagen Group founded Wolfsburg AG in 1997 in order to put the AutoVision concept into practice. The company was created after the "GIZ Gründungs- und Innovationszentrum GmbH"

limited company In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by Share (finance), shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by ...

was converted into a stock corporation. The city of Wolfsburg and Volkswagen each hold a 50 percent share in Wolfsburg AG. In the beginning, the

business operations Business operations is the ''harvesting'' of value from assets owned by a business. Assets can be either ''physical'' or '' intangible''. An example of value derived from a physical asset, like a building, is rent. An example of value derived fro ...

of Wolfsburg AG covered four task areas: the InnovationsCampus, Supplier Park, Adventure World and PersonnelServiceAgency. While the InnovationsCampus promoted the creation of new businesses, the Supplier Park enabled additional suppliers from the automotive industry and related industries to become established in the region. The aim of the Adventure World idea was to provide quality leisure activities in the city of Wolfsburg in order to increase the city’s attractiveness, while giving the service sector a boost at the same time. The tasks of the Personnel Service Agency included taking care of

recruitment Recruitment is the overall process of identifying, sourcing, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing candidates for jobs (either permanent or temporary) within an organization. Recruitment also is the processes involved in choosing individual ...

(including

temporary employment Temporary work or temporary employment (also called gigs) refers to an employment situation where the working arrangement is limited to a certain period of time based on the needs of the employing organization. Temporary employees are sometimes ...

) and employee qualifications in particular.

Structure

Wolfsburg AG is headquartered at the AutoVision Forum located in Wolfsburg's Hageberg district. The company owns and operates the site, which boasts a floor space of approximately 27,000 square meters. Essential components of the building complex are the Center for Simultaneous Engineering and the InnovationsCampus. Between the two lies the Arena: offices, catering, conference and event facilities are housed in this central building. The objective of Wolfsburg AG is to promote the economic structure and the development of employment opportunities primarily in Wolfsburg and in the region to create jobs and improve quality of life". The

share capital A corporation's share capital, commonly referred to as capital stock in the United States, is the portion of a corporation's equity that has been derived by the issue of shares in the corporation to a shareholder, usually for cash. "Share capita ...

of Wolfsburg AG is 10.1 million euros. It is divided into 10.1 million no-par-value registered shares ( common shares). These shares are not traded on a

stock exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for th ...

and may only be transferred with the approval of the annual general meeting. Wolfsburg AG is represented by two members of the executive board or one board member and a procurator. The executive board currently consists of four people, with Julius von Ingelheim appointed as its spokesman. The supervisory board consists of 18 people, who are appointed in equal parts by the city of Wolfsburg and the Volkswagen Group. The Chairman of the Supervisory Board is Klaus Mohrs, who has been serving as mayor of Wolfsburg since 2012. Wolfsburg AG is financed primarily by the activities of the PersonnelServiceAgency., which is called AutoVision Zeitarbeit and was founded as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

with a Volkswagen subsidiary in 2013. The company provides specialized and supporting staff who are employed during work peaks and the holiday period. Wolfsburg AG is also involved in other enterprises, for example in the Gewerbeakademie Wolfsburg (Wolfsburg Commercial Academy), the Neue Schule Wolfsburg (Wolfsburg New School) and the Wolfsburger Energieagentur (Wolfsburg Energy Agency).

Operations

The company is also active in the fields of

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

leisure Leisure has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, work, job hunting, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. Leisure ...

and mobility as well as in

business development Business development entails tasks and processes to develop and implement growth opportunities within and between organizations. It is a subset of the fields of business, commerce and organizational theory. Business development is the creation of ...

. The Agency for Intercultural Business Relations, for example, acts as a service provider for other companies that want to qualify their employees for a stay abroad. The range of activities in the area of private and occupational health spans from the education and supervision of staff to the development and commercialization of preventive healthcare services. Together with Wolfsburg's public utilities, the Wolfsburg Energy Agency provides citizens, businesses and municipalities with advice in all matters relating to energy and

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...

in particular. Wolfsburg AG also funds a range of leisure activities designed to increase the attractiveness of the city of Wolfsburg and the region as a location for living and tourism. The

Allerpark The Allerpark is a public leisure park in the German city of Wolfsburg. It is located between the districts of Wolfsburg-Reislingen, Wolfsburg-Vorsfelde, Wolfsburg-Nordstadt and Wolfsburg-Stadtmitte. The Allersee lake, which was created at the en ...

plays an important role in this area: Wolfsburg AG built the Volkswagen Arena in the park in 2002 and has remained its proprietor right up to the present day. The Allerpark is even home to an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

stadium and a public swimming complex. Wolfsburg AG is responsible for the park management of the Allerpark, as well as project development and the acquisition of operators and investors. Wolfsburg AG also gives special attention to the automotive industry, which it considers to be a key factor in economic development. In addition to promoting the establishment of suppliers in the region, Wolfsburg AG also supports industry networking and research initiatives in the field of mobility and even organizes conventions and exhibitions. The annual International Suppliers Fair (IZB), for example, is one of the largest events for automotive industry suppliers.

References

External links

Website of Wolfsburg AG
{{Authority control 1999 establishments in Germany Companies based in Lower Saxony Service companies of Germany Volkswagen Group