WAE Group: from concept to electronic product
CAO Concept has been an integral part of the WAE Group, which also combines Quasar Concept and SERETEC since 2017. Here is a description of the company’s project with Frédéric Fabre (CEO), the architect of these three acquisitions, whose ambition is to offer a global industrial service with international ambitions. An illustration of Made in France expertise in electronics.
Since 2017, the WAE Group has been structured via the acquisition of three complementary SMEs operating in electronics. It illustrates a desire to rely on French innovation and technology to offer the market an industrial accelerator.
In order to start building the WAE Group, a second company was acquired in 2017 at the same time as CAO Concept: Quasar Concept, also based in Maine-et-Loire (Avrillé).
It is a design office and manufacturing workshop specialising in test benches and test equipment, electronics and connected objects or IoT. Its core business: the measurement and testing of all physical quantities. This operation has 25 years of experience. Staff: 30 people. Turnover: 2.8 million euros.
A third SME joined the adventure at the beginning of 2020: based in Villebon-sur-Yvette, in the Paris suburbs (91), SERETEC is a design and industrialisation office for mechatronic products. Mechatronics is defined as the energetic and systemic combination, in real time, of mechanics, electronics, automation and IT. Staff: 12 people. Turnover: 4.2 million euros.
A successful acquisition is first and foremost a meeting…
« Before this latest acquisition, we had missed out on an opportunity relating to a hand prosthesis because we were unable to mass-produce it,” explains Frédéric Fabre, the head of WAE Group. “In December 2018, whilst I was looking at company acquisitions, I discovered SERETEC, a design office with a subsidiary in Asia, FAR EAST, enabling us to out-source for production. The head of SERETEC also had this vision for industrialisation and integration of complete projects. It was a good match for us. An acquisition relies a great deal on meeting the right person… »
WAE Group: an agile industrial aggregator!
« From the idea to the market, from the design to the serial life of a product, the WAE Group is positioned as a single point of contact, an aggregator of skills and an industrial accelerator at the service of the customer in the electronics industry», continues Frédéric Fabre. This is achieved via two strategic inputs.
By focusing on the integration of the entire process “as a Service” as related to industrial electronics:
- Design and prototyping
- Certification and manufacturing up to optimisation
- Ancillary services (after-sales and logistics)
Objective : to provide turnkey services to start-ups, SMEs, medium-size companies and large groups.
By guaranteeing, thanks to the combined experience and complementarity of its three units :
- Cost
- Quality
- Security
For both small and medium series produced in France and for large series in Asia with the support of its local subsidiary FAR EAST (Hong Kong in charge of finding the best industrial partners.
« Who better to prepare a product for mass production than the person who designed it » With a very broad spectrum of activity including equipment for the medical world, beauty, sports, new forms of mobility around connected vehicles (IoT) or underwater drones.
Collective values, ambitions and the « e-economy »
With 60 employees and a combined turnover of 10 million euros, WAE Group is now ready to move forward and is counting on a collective dynamic, shared “electronic” values and synergy between its three units to achieve its industrial ambitions in France and abroad.
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And watch Frédéric Fabre’s video replay on BFM Business
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