Birth of Acte International
Following the merger of Modsys and WethicA Europe, Acte International has been located in Voiron since 28 March. Its core business is international trade consultancy, assessing, securing, optimizing and managing its customers’ procurement and international distribution operations. With partnerships in Asia, North America, Mexico and soon in Europe itself, the firm chose to locate to Rhône-Alpes on account of its buoyant economy and mountain-related values: taste for challenges, capacity for observation, team spirit, perseverance, technical excellence, curiosity and love of discovery. Customers include Marèse, Aubade, Dior and Lacroix, in fashion and haute couture, ARaymond, Lafuma and King Jouet, in industry, L’Oréal and Forever Living Products in cosmetics. Acte International reported €3m sales in 2007.

Radiall signs a major contract with Boeing
Radiall specializes in the manufacture of electronic components for wireless communications applications, telematics, and defence and aeronautics equipment. It has now undertaken to supply the electrical distribution connectors for the Boeing 787, better known as the Dreamliner. This success crowns the company’s efforts to develop a new generation of modular composite connectors. It follows on from an existing contract, which means the B787 will be Radiall’s flagship programme for the next 15 years. In 2004 it won one of Boeing’s 2004 Supplier of the Year awards, garnering a similar prize from Airbus in 2006. With revenue of €200m in 2007 Radiall employs more than 450 people in the Voiron area.

Air Liquide obtains quality certification
The Advanced Technology Division (DTA) at Air Liquide qualified for EN-9100 certification last January. With a score of 96.5/100 the company is now listed in the Oasis global database. It also obtained renewal of its ISO 9001 V2000 certification. DTA, which is based in the Grenoble area, operates in China, the US and soon Japan. The division specializes in verylow temperature cryogenics, space, aeronautics and hydrogen energy. DTA employs 320 people and reported €71m sales in 2007. Air Liquide, which is represented in 75 countries, is the world leader in industrial and medical gases, and associated services.

PIL’es, raising the logistics stakes

Logistics is a key component in the economic development of Nord-Isère, the northern part of the Isère department and home to the largest land-based logistics platform in southern Europe. This rapidly evolving business has gained increasing strategic leverage as a key component in the response to the financial challenges associated with successful supply chain management. In Nord-Isère the Southern Europe Logistics Intelligence Centre (PIL’es) is working hard to promote a high-performance, quality industry.

Décathlon’s logistics platform © CCI NI

The notion of an industry busily stacking pallets on a loading bay is definitely outdated. Logistics is much more than just another horizontal activity. It is a strategic business that impacts directly on a high-cost factor, time, with the promise of substantial savings for those smart enough to manage it effectively.

Logistics, at the meeting point of strategic challenges
Over the last 15 years logistics has contributed to increasingly rational supply chain management. Logistics’ ultimate aim is to expedite flows at the lowest possible cost, regardless of whether it is dealing with raw materials or the data on which the procurement of such materials depends. It concerns the whole process, from supplier to customer, and as such logistics has become an essential factor in competitive differentiation. Mastering this activity makes possible a series of quality-building services: meeting deadlines, guaranteed procurement, product traceability, handling of product returns, after-sales service, etc. In short logistics is the key component in a supply chain striving to achieve customer satisfaction. It has become an essential part of corporate performance, reducing the margin of uncertainty between the supply side, constantly meeting new requirements, and increasingly specific demands.

PIL’es, a bridgehead serving southern Europe
With more than 12,000 jobs and 70 specialist firms located between Grenoble and Lyon logistics is certainly on a roll. But the business does not enjoy an immediately positive image, occupying as it does some 1.6m sq m of space and sending 5,000 trucks back and forth across Nord-Isère every day. So in November 2007 the local authorities set up PIL’es to promote the development of next-generation logistics in Rhône-Alpes. With the support of the Nord-Isère Chamber of Commerce and various local development agencies, five companies launched a quality-building process: NYK Logistics France, Prologis, Chevallier Logistique, Schneider Electric and Métal Centre. An action programme has been engaged to make Nord-Isère a centre for experimenting next-generation logistics. PIL’es is concentrating on improving the image of the business and associated trades. Accordingly, in 2008, it opened a training course for locally based executives to enhance their sense of leadership, through a better grasp of technicalities related to information systems, quality, safety and employment law.
The industry, which is currently registering 10% annual growth, is keen to contribute to regional development, a process from which everyone stands to gain. By 2020 a multimodal hub should link up the logistics bases of Nord-Isère with Lyon Saint-Exupéry airport, the port on the Rhône at Vienne, as well as the rail freight network and the future TGV fast-train link between Lyon and Turin.
Setting our sights on the next 15 years is the best way of growing a high addedvalue sector, strategically located at the meeting point of northern and southern Europe.

Joining the Elite of soccer

Grenoble-Foot 38 celebrates its qualification for France’s major league © Laurent Dastrevigne / GF38

On 12 May, in a brand new stadium opened in February, a jubilant crowd watched Grenoble’s football club, the GF 38, qualify for promotion to France’s major league next season. Only the country’s top 20 teams compete in this elite division. Breaking with tradition Grenoble is the first foreign-owned football club in France. In 2006 the Index Corporation of Japan, which specializes in the supply of content for mobile phones, took a majority share in GF 38. The decisive factor for Kazutoshi Watanabe, the CEO of Index was the city’s dynamic economy. Promotion to the major league holds the promise of a boost to the local economy. “It’s a fine collective victory, with encouraging prospects for a city that already boasts a large number of athletes,” says Mr Watanabe.

Centenary of Olivier Messiaen The 11th edition of the festival in honour of Olivier Messiaen, one of the most important 20th century composers, will be an exceptional event, coinciding as it does with the centenary of his birth. The festival, celebrated from 10 to 20 July in the midst of the French Alps, in Grenoble- Isère, “his true homeland” as the composer liked to say, will feature 14 concerts and two days of study focusing on the composer’s career. With international guests such as Myung-Whun Chung, conducting the Radio France philharmonic orchestra, Mireille Delunsch, Régis and Bruno Pasquier, Marc Coppey, Tedi Papavrami and Peter Hill, the festivities should be truly memorable. The centenary year will be marked by 600 concerts in more than 140 towns in 27 countries, with the Turangalîla symphony being performed by leading orchestras – the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Philharmonia, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam and the Orchestre de Paris. Messiaen travelled widely, with several appearances in New York and of course Paris, but he was particularly affected by Japan. His Seven Haikai is a metaphor for the birdsong of Karuizawa. The composer wrote almost all his works in the mountains of Dauphiné, notably his Et exspecto ressurectionem Mortuorum. He pioneered the study of rhythm, applying his findings to his own music and leaving a vast treatise, running to several volumes, entitled the Traité de rythme, de couleur et d’ornithologie.