Y-Park

Compared to the many start-ups occupying Y-PARC, SCHOTT Suisse SA surely seems like a patriarch to some! The fact that we are positioned at the forefront of the field that concerns us – namely high added value optical products – does not change anything: it remains true that the foundations of the current company were laid by Éric Guinchard in… 1968 (!), in the cellars of his private house located in Condémines, in the eastern districts of Yverdon-les-Bains.

Since then, the main milestones to remember are the following:

• 1989: takeover of the company by Jacques Guinchard, son of the founder, with his brother-in-law Jean-Luc Wuillamoz;
• 1998: establishment on the still young Y-PARC site;
• 2001: merger between “Guinchard Verre Optique” and the German SCHOTT AG;
• 2005: definitive transition under the latter’s leadership.

For my part, I joined the company in 2011 as production manager; I then succeeded Christophe Baur as head of SCHOTT Suisse SA in April 2024.

At the end of this quarter of a century, our Yverdon company has constantly gained in importance within the SCHOTT group (which currently has no fewer than 17,000 employees worldwide). Alongside the group’s German, American and Malaysian sites that are part of the “Advanced Optics” division to which we belong, we are the production site specializing in the most advanced optical components in the company’s catalog with a wide range of materials.

Whether in the medical, avionics, astronomy, semiconductor or automotive fields, the “high-tech” positioning is essential. This is obviously a heavy responsibility and calls on cutting-edge knowledge and skills available on our site.

The secret of the uninterrupted growth of SCHOTT Suisse SA in Yverdon-les-Bains certainly lies in the great diversity of customers and markets that our entity serves. This has notably enabled us to get through various economic crises in the past as well as the recent pandemic without any real damage. A sustainable strategy (in every sense of the word) has also contributed to this success.

Regarding our development within Y-PARC, I can only speak about the last thirteen years, of course. But this sequence was enough to allow me to see to what extent this space has favored, with extreme flexibility and in successive stages, our expansion within the “Galilée” perimeter.

Beyond this strict dimension of physical establishment, we also draw a very encouraging assessment of our registration within the local industrial community. I am thinking here of the collaborations with other companies present in the Technospace (Digiinov, Sylvac, etc.) as well as the partnerships established with the HEIG-VD or the mandates entrusted to a whole series of subcontractors constituting the Yverdon pool. This, without mentioning convergences with structures barely further away, such as the EPFL in Lausanne or the CSEM in Neuchâtel.