Broetje-Automation Group: a successful composition

From the Northwest of Germany, Broetje-Automation Group became the world's leading expert in specialised production processes in the aviation and aerospace industry, servicing all major aircraft manufacturers around the world. Since the first major acquisition in 2007, Broetje needed to expand globally across multiple jurisdictions including the US, UK, France, Russia, and China. The company faced complex challenges in managing international operations, including coordinating tax compliance, international taxation, transfer pricing, staff secondment, corporate restructuring, and M&A activities across different countries with varying legal and regulatory requirements.

HLB member firms from several countries under the lead of HLB Stückmann, Bielefeld, Germany, helped to successfully acquire local suppliers and distributors, implement efficient distribution vehicles and a tax efficient intra-group cooperation strategy. A team of ten professionals located in Bielefeld covers and coordinates the services in the fields of tax compliance, international taxation, transfer pricing, staff secondment, corporate restructuring, M&A and legal services, mainly concerning contractual structuring. In the UK, Menzies advised Broetje at the GmbH level and with the set-up of a new UK company, coordinating the UK position with HLB Stückmann to ensure consistent advice across borders. In the US, Withum Smith+Brown assisted Broetje through two major transitions: moving their US headquarters from Omaha, Nebraska to Buffalo, New York, and handling a change in personnel in the finance & accounting department. They assist with year-end income tax provision and US tax compliance filings. In France, HLB supported Broetje with tax, social and legal issues following the acquisition of a French company in South France in 2011. In China, HLB ThinkBridge worked with HLB Stückmann to support Broetje's understanding of Chinese taxes, helped with company setup in Shanghai, and provided continuous accounting service, tax filing and financial reporting service to Broetje Shanghai, including both statutory and group audit.

HLB's intra-disciplinary approach covering accounting, tax advisory and legal services, all coordinated to suit the operative and strategic needs of Broetje-Automation, manifested the success of the mutual cooperation. The strong individual relationships between responsible client partners in relevant jurisdictions (Germany, US, UK, Russia, China and Japan) based on years of international cooperation, professional experiences and personal relationships developed at HLB's international conferences, allowed for outstanding performance in a world of international players. The coordination across multiple HLB member firms in different countries enabled Broetje to successfully manage its global expansion and complex international operations.