Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) will relocate to France the production of its corporate telephone exchanges, which had previously been operated in Romania. They will now be assembled by Cofidur, a service provider based in Laval. Ironically, the chosen site belonged to Alcatel, before being partially taken over by the Mayenne electronics subcontractor.
Arrived at the end of the contract with the American Flextronics in Romania, the equipment manufacturer asked itself the question of renewing it or not for five years. “We could have gone to a low-cost country like Vietnam,” says Thierry Bonnin, vice-president of public affairs and strategic partnerships at ALE, on BFM Business.
Reduce the carbon footprint
Several criteria led to this decision to repatriate the PABX assembly to the national territory. France is first of all the first market of ALE where it holds 43% of market shares ahead of the Canadian rival Mitel by a short head.
“By producing locally, we reduce our carbon footprint,” continues Thierry Bonnin. Until then, the equipment manufacturer had to fly planes from Bucharest or Timisoara, in Romania, to its logistics hub in Lagny, in Seine-et-Marne.
Producing locally will also make it possible to deliver more quickly to its customers, including the RATP or Le Grand Paris Express.
“Reanchoring the industrial history of Alcatel in France”
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise will be “the only European supplier to develop, integrate and deliver enterprise telecommunications solutions”, rejoices the spokesperson. It is also, according to him, to “re-anchor the industrial history of Alcatel in France”. A company more than a hundred years old, the acronym which comes from the Alsatian of atomic constructions, telecommunications and electronics is a well-known brand in France.
The sale of this French flagship to the American Lucent in 2006, then to the Finnish Nokia in 2015 made the headlines of the economic press at the time, as a symbol of French deindustrialisation, alongside the disposals of Arcelor, Alstom, Lafarge or Essilor. The business branch, called ALE, will go under the Chinese flag. The investment fund China Huaxin Post and Telecom will take over the activity for only 202 million euros.
A company under French law, but owned by a Chinese fund
For Thierry Bonnin, Huaxin is a financial partner and his company is in no way comparable with the Chinese equipment manufacturers Huawei or ZTE. A company under French law, ALE is not subject to the American Cloud Act and FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), nor to Chinese law. In addition, its IP telephony or remote collaboration solutions are hosted by OVHcloud, a French provider.
ALE, which includes a number of public players – health establishments, communities – and transport operators, has been playing this sovereignty card for several years. Last July, the group inaugurated its R&D campus in Illkirch, recalling its Alsatian origins. It employs on this site 400 employees among the thousand jobs that it has in France.
Minister Delegate in charge of Digital Transition and Telecommunications, Jean-Noël Barrot was present this Friday, March 10 at the headquarters of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise in Colombes (92) to discuss the company’s new strategy in France and Europe. An official visit to try to forget the exits of a former Minister of Economy, Arnaud Montebourg, who had in his time castigated the sale of Alcatel.