Thales is closing its offices in Delft and Huizen and will open a new hub in Amsterdam at the end of next year. In the capital, it will concentrate a portion of the activities from these two sites and other locations in the Netherlands, departing CEO Gerben Edelijn announced in a podcast of Dutch business media Het Financieele Dagblad and BNR. The company’s core will remain in Hengelo, where it’s starting to outgrow its current facilities.
In Huizen, Thales has 300 people working on communication systems for the army and solutions for public transportation. The site also acts as a hub for cybersecurity services in the Netherlands. Employing fifty, Delft is primarily an R&D branch focusing on sensor technology. Other locations include Eindhoven, where eighty employees build cryocoolers. At the Dutch headquarters in Hengelo, about 2,500 people are developing radar systems for naval defense.
The decision to relocate was made recently, says Edelijn. “In Amsterdam, we’re really trying to build a hub that will operate for us across different types of business,” he explains. At the same time, Thales hopes to become more attractive to potential new employees, more of whom can be found in the Greater Amsterdam region.
