Last month All Circuits, France’s largest EMS, announced that it would be acquired by DBG Technology, the sixteenth largest EMS in the world, and one of China’s largest domestic manufacturers. Philip Stoten caught up with ALL Circuits President, Bruno Racault to explore the acquisition from his point of view, and from that of his team and his customers.
Congratulations on the acquisition by DBG Technology. This deal elevates you from a top sixty EMS to a top twenty in terms of scale, but what does it mean to your existing customers?
Bruno Racault: Thank you, it’s been a lot of work, a lot of patience and a lot of persistence, but we believe we have found the right partner to move the ALL Circuits brand forward. We’ve always put our customers and our staff at the center of what we do, and this fits with the culture of DBG.
You know, the world has changed a great deal over recent years and geopolitics continues to impact what we do, and more importantly, where we do it. We have always been proud of our strong French presence and roots, and supporting that with lower cost manufacturing in Tunisia and then in México made a great deal of sense. But now we have an even more impressive manufacturing footprint and capability.
We now have more than 150 SMT lines at our disposal and we find ourselves able to manufacture in China to service our customers who deliver products there. What’s more we have added capabilities in India, Vietnam and Bangladesh. I know our colleagues at DBG are equally excited about the addition of a European, North African, and American footprint.
For our customers the benefits are clear. The same customer focused service applied over a much larger and more globally dispersed footprint. Capacity and capability will be greater than ever, and we are adding the agility to adapt to geopolitical disruptions, or any other kind of disruption come to that.
For our team, it provides us with scale and security and even more opportunities to develop and grow with the organization. All Circuits has an incredibly loyal team, and we have always prided ourselves on taking the best possible care of every member of that team. After all, it is they that deliver quality and value to our customers.
Will ALL Circuits maintain its own identity after the merger?
Bruno Racault: Yes, we will! Our brand, our culture and our identity are important to us and we are pleased that we will continue to trade as ALL Circuits after the acquisition has gone through. Throughout the constructive negotiation we made it clear that we wanted to maintain some level of independence, while leaning on a larger organization to expand globally.
What about markets? All Circuits is predominantly an automotive supplier and DBG has a substantial presence in the telecoms markets. Does this indicate any shift in priorities?
Bruno Racault: I see the fact that we are in different markets as another reason we are complementary. We provide DBG a route to expand in our markets and they do the same in theirs. We bring different skill sets together as a result. I am excited to be able to provide ALL Circuits customers with manufacturing services in new locations and expand our presence in those regions. I am equally excited to be able to offer DBG customers manufacturing options in both Europe and the Americas.
Both the automotive industry and the telecoms industry are highly demanding and highly competitive. Both require a strong focus on digital transformation and automation to deliver the desired product quality at competitive prices. I expect both sides of the new organization to bring their own skills and best practices to the table and hope we can all improve as a result.
What about vertical integration? You have added design service to ALL Circuits already, will you gain additional service through the merger?
Bruno Racault: Yes, we see the integration of services like design as the future of the partnerships we are forging with our customers. DBG Technology brings other vertically integrated services up and down that value chain and we are looking forward to offering those to our customers.
Last questions, and perhaps the most important, what about the cultural fit? After all, you’re a French organization and they are Chinese?
Bruno Racault: That’s a good question, and you’re right, probably the most important thing to consider in such a deal. We have discovered that we have some shared ideals, not just about customer service. We are both focussed on driving automation and digital transformation to improve efficiency, quality and overall performance. DBG Technology considers itself to be a leader in embracing Industry 4.0 ideals in their factories and we feel the same way ourselves.
Another area we have found common ground is around sustainability, a thing that has been very important to ALL Circuits, turns out to be a key part of DBG’s strategy as well. Their ‘green factory’ and energy monitoring and reduction goals are closely aligned with ours and we hope that together we can achieve an even more sustainable manufacturing model in the future.
Bruno, thanks so much for sharing this insight on such an important deal, we look forward to monitoring over the coming months and chatting again soon.
