The Burgundy-based group continues to grow, despite the uncertain economic climate, in its specialty of managing internal company flows. It is capitalizing on its ability to support and even anticipate change. Savoye's management team provides an insight into these developments, two weeks ahead of the Euro Supply Chain trade show in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), where Savoye will be exhibiting its products and services on June 11.
Savoye has been involved in intralogistics for over 40 years, even before the concept was coined as such in the supply chain world, when it was still in its prehistory. The function can be described as the management of flows within a company's sites or between several sites, prior to shipment. “We intervene in the downstream part of the supply chain, right up to loading for transport, a service we do not provide”, summarizes Rémy Jeannin, President of the Côte-d'Or-based group.
Savoye has become one of the world leaders in this field, with a workforce of around 1,000 and sales of 192 million euros, half of which are generated outside Europe: around a third in the United States over the years, and 10 to 15% in the Middle East and Asia.
The amount for 2023 has remained stable compared with 2022, mainly thanks to the inertia effect over time of long-term orders, insofar as new contracts remained stable last year, the inflationary context having generated a climate of uncertainty about the evolution of consumption.
Cross-sectoral by definition, the group's offering is aimed at a wide variety of industries, with its leader pointing out its strengths in “cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, mass retail, automotive parts and office supplies”. For a total installed base of around a thousand warehouses. “We have followed the consolidation of the players in the various sectors we serve, which has led us to work with world leaders. But we are far from abandoning smaller players. Our range of contracts goes from 250,000 to 30 million euros,” explains Rémy Jeannin. More than one major logistics project in Savoye's Burgundy fiefdom has fallen into its lap, for example Urgo's forthcoming 13,000 m2 platform on the outskirts of Dijon.
At the crossroads of data and robotics
Rémy Jeannin identifies multiple factors behind the changes in intralogistics. Automation, for example, is steadily gaining ground. This is due to a sort of “natural” phenomenon of efficiency and productivity, “but also to the widespread difficulty of finding manpower”. This is coupled with a growing interaction with software. “We position ourselves as a player in both data (without being database publishers ourselves) and mechanics/robotics. In our field, it no longer makes sense to draw a line between these two functions", continues Savoye's CEO.
As a result, the Côte-d'Or-based company has become an “ensemblier”, involved in the design of management tools such as WMS (Warehouse Management System) and OMS (Order Management System) software packages, in manufacturing, and therefore in integration. “Customers increasingly expect us to select the best processes with them, at a time of accelerating innovation”, observes Savoye's Chairman.
The benchmark in flow management is modernizing itself accordingly. In early 2025, this will culminate in the expected opening of the new Savoye plant in Dijon's Beauregard zone. Over a surface area of 21,000 m2 and at a cost of 30 million euros, the group will deploy its latest equipment and logistics resources, currently located in Ladoix-Sarrigny, and will also bring together its head office there. The move will involve a workforce of 500, which is set to grow.
Human resources, an increasingly multifaceted challenge
On the theme of human resources, which is the common thread running through Euro Supply Chain 2024, Rémy Jeannin has a clear vision: here too, change is at work, and it's creating its own challenges. “Traditionally, tensions on the job market have been linked to business activity. This is still the case, but they are coupled with more profound changes, which have to do with the quest for balance between professional and private life. For a company like ours, with its global reach, these changes present particular challenges. How can we remain attractive in production or logistics jobs like others that may involve long-distance travel, for example? How can we remain competitive when we're working with a region of the world like Asia, where work is still the supreme value? We're working on it.
