(Munich) Louis Roy, CEO of Optel in Quebec, the world leader in traceability systems, meets for the first time the employees of Traxeed, a German company he has just acquired. An important transaction for Optel which allows it to consolidate its position in the European market in the traceability of pharmaceutical products and to expand its reach to other industrial sectors.
Posted at 6:30 a.m.
“We were number 1 in North America, number 1 in the Asian market, there we go from number 5 to number 2 in the European market. This new foothold in Munich will above all give us access to the vast and diversified German market,” Louis Roy explained to me, on the sidelines of a ceremony that took place on May 9 at the Délégation générale du Québec in Munich to highlight the event.
It was last January that Optel completed the acquisition of Traxeed, a company that develops and manufactures traceability systems for pharmaceutical products, as Optel does in its markets. Traxeed was a subsidiary of the German group Körber, a manufacturer of vaccine manufacturing equipment.
“We convinced Körber to sell us this division which was not essential to its operations and we signed an agreement today which will ensure that we can trace all the vaccines that will be manufactured with their equipment”, m clarified Louis Roy.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, THE PRESS
Optel offices in Quebec
A little earlier in the day, Florent Bouguin, Chief Technology Officer at Optel, explained to me at Traxeed the genesis of this transaction.
“We have been looking at the German market for two years. The traceability unit in Körber’s pharmaceutical products appeared to us to be the best vehicle for achieving our entry into the German market.
“We will also be able to deploy our expertise in traceability to the natural resources, automotive, battery, agri-food, chemical and consumer goods sectors,” explains Florent Bouguin.
“We were already present in Europe with our factory in Ireland, but German companies want to do business with German companies. »
An accompaniment in implantation
This is confirmed to me by Élise Roy, director of economic services at the Délégation générale du Québec in Munich. Reporting to Investissement Québec International, Élise Roy leads a team of six people, including four economic attachés, all German (except one Austrian), who are part of the staff of the Ministry of International Relations.
“Germany is the manufacturing cradle of Europe. But to do business in Germany, you have to be established here. They want partners who speak German. We often talk about the big German groups like Mercedes, Siemens, BMW, Volkswagen, BASF, but 80% of the German economy is based on large family SMEs,” says Élise Roy.
PHOTO JEAN-PHILIPPE DÉCARIE, THE PRESS
Elisa Valentin, General Delegate of Quebec in Munich, Louis Roy, CEO of Optel, and Élise Roy, Director of Economic Services at the General Delegation of Quebec in Munich
“We were referred to Optel by our Europe manager at the Montreal office of Investissement Québec. We talked for a year with Florent Bouguin via Zoomwe guided them to conferences on health so that they had visibility with customers and we organized industrial visits to other potential customers,” explains Élise Roy.
clear and to accompany
A year ago, when Optel identified Traxeed as an acquisition target, the team at the Délégation générale du Québec in Munich offered its services to assist it in carrying out the transaction.
“We organized meetings with chancellery officials to fully understand the laws on labor standards. They were referred to specialists from Invest in Bavaria to successfully implement them in Germany. »
We are not lawyers or financiers, we do support, clearing and we make our network of contacts work in Germany.
Élise Roy, Director of Economic Services at the General Delegation of Quebec in Munich
His colleague Katharina Benz, a Bavarian and economic attaché for 12 years in Munich, put her list of key contacts of experts of all kinds to work, as did Peter Freier, commercial attaché specializing in science and technology.
“In fact, the whole team was called upon for Optel because the company wants to offer its traceability technologies in all industrial sectors,” Katharina Benz explains to me.
Results evidence
This collaboration was fruitful since the economic team of the General Delegation of Quebec succeeded in bringing together about fifteen managers from as many industrial companies in Munich during the reception organized for Optel during which Louis Roy presented his company and its vision of the responsible supply chain.
Among the companies represented, we found in particular the head of supply of the car manufacturer Porsche, the vice-president for sustainable development of the industrial group Siemens, senior executives from Boehringer, Bosch and Veritas as well as representatives of Bavarian employers.
Companies that must now present a healthy environmental balance sheet have no choice but to ensure that their supply chain does too. With our traceability technologies, we go back to the source and we can help them achieve their goals. We have become indispensable.
Louis Roy, CEO of Optel
Two months after the ceremony which marked the official arrival of Optel in Germany, discussions with Porsche are progressing at a brisk pace, and the CEO of Optel will move to Europe in September with his family to be closer to future developments.
“Awareness of climate change is stronger in Europe. The extreme heat waves that Europe is experiencing this summer reinforce the urgency to decarbonize. It will move faster,” anticipates the CEO of Optel, who also wants things to move faster.