Tell us a bit about your business. When were you founded, where are you based and how many people do you employ?
Lectra is the technological partner for companies using fabric and leather, serving more than 25,000 customers in over 100 countries.
Founded in 1973, Lectra’s headquarters are located in Paris and our technology campus is located in Bordeaux. We have over 50 nationalities amongst our 1750 employees, and we have 34 subsidiaries across the globe. Here in the UK, we have a hugely experienced network of solution experts, engineers, account managers and customer care professionals located across the country.
Worldwide we have five call centres as well as three international technology centres where companies can come and see our technology in action and meet our experts as well as join us for industry-leading conferences. Our technology centre in Bordeaux also houses our research and development facility, as well as our state-of-the-art lean factory.
What does the business do?
Lectra provides manufacturers of fabric and leather automotive interiors and airbags with fully integrated offers, from design and development to industrialised cutting and process optimisation.
Our offer combines software, cutting equipment, data and services to help our customers to implement efficient and rapid product development processes, reduce costs and increase their margins, as well as reduce material waste.
With Lectra’s 3D/2D solutions, companies can quickly respond to emerging trends and eliminate the need for numerous physical prototypes, reducing lead times and costs.
Lectra’s Vector for automotive has become the market’s best-selling digital fabric cutter. Lectra is the only company in the market to combine leading-edge technology, cutting room expertise and global support services in a single offering.
The Versalis integrated offer enables customers to digitalise their end-to-end leather cutting process. VersalisAuto delivers best-in-class quality and a level of manufacturing flexibility impossible to achieve using die presses. Lectra’s cutting-room expertise covers every step from costing to manufacturing.
How is business? What’s the outlook for the year ahead?
The year 2020 will of course be marked by the global health crisis and its consequences. No doubt it has been a challenge and these unpredictable times will continue for some time. We have a particularly robust balance sheet, as well as a proven and award-winning business model, so we remain absolutely confident that we will ride the current storm.
Now, more than ever, we are seeing companies taking a fresh approach to their manufacturing operations. Businesses are turning to us to see how we can help them streamline their business, save on costs and take products to market faster. We have automotive cutting-room expertise reaching back to 1991, and are ideally positioned to empower automotive suppliers with the agility and business control they need to take their products to market quickly in this fast-moving, and currently very changeable, environment.
What are the big issues or technological advances that fill you with positivity?
What has filled us with enthusiasm recently has been the opportunity to support customers through the crisis.
We’ve supported many of our customers to reorient their business towards PPE production, and in fact Lectra has also supported the collective effort to fight against this crisis by voluntarily cutting masks and medical personal protective equipment. We feel immensely proud of this collective effort, it shows us that anything is possible. Despite these uncertain times, we want to help our customers to achieve great things and be the best they can possibly be.
Holger Max-Lang, President, Northern & Eastern Europe, Middle East, Lectra
