Neos

Improving efficiency and increasing the level of service offered to its customers, while improving its carbon footprint. This is the triple challenge taken up by Neos by relocating the production of belt conveyors that it was previously buying from a foreign supplier.

In 2021, the SME specialising in waste recycling facilities made a simple observation about the conveyors used in its installations: “there was a gap in the market in relation to the technological level we wanted to reach in order to broaden our range of services” , says Christophe Bernad, the company's chairman. The chosen solution was to replace the components purchased in Polland with components designed and manufactured directly by Neos in France.

Crucial support

To structure its industrialisation process properly, the SME called on the Competitiveness and relocation through industrialisation of innovation (Coriin) programme, run by Cetim and the Bourgogne Franche-Comté region, under the aegis of UIMM Bourgogne Franche-Comté. "We benefited from the support of two consultants who helped us build our project. We then moved on to the implementation phase. This support enabled us to make rational decisions about our industrial direction” , explains Geoffroy Graindorge, Technical Director.

The strategy adopted was to concentrate first on the sliding- floor conveyor, where the conveyor belt slides on a steel rail, which accounts for 80% of its needs. Thanks to this support, "everything was set up in the space of a year” , explains Mohamed Hanchi, Works and Industry Director at Neos. Operations began in a small workshop, then in an assembly hall in Chalon-sur- Saône (Saône-et-Loire). Today, the SME is able to produce 200 conveyors a year. "Eventually, we'll be producing all the types of conveyor that we used to buy from suppliers. The aim is to become self-sufficient in the manufacture and delivery of conveyors and handling equipment to our worksites", says Mohamed Hanchi.