As part of a global initiative to better serve regional customers, Sepro Group, La Roche sur Yon, France, has launched a new daughter company to serve the Canadian Market.
Firaz Sharaf, an experienced industrial automation professional, has been appointed Canadian National Sales Manager. The Canadian daughter company will run in parallel with Sepro America, the U.S. daughter company which has managed activities in Canada until this year. Along with the head office in France, Sepro America will provide sales and service support, automation engineering and training for the new entity.
“Since the 2007 creation of Sepro America, and the opening of Sepro Mexico a year later, we have seen our market share in these countries grow dramatically,” explains Jean- Michel Renaudeau, CEO of Sepro Group. “The next logical step is now to establish a local presence in the other important North American market. In other words, we intend to be Canadian in Canada.”
Renaudeau notes that Canadian customers will now enjoy quicker response from a direct bilingual sales team. They can still benefit from the 24/7 North American service hotline, and fast parts delivery from the Sepro America warehouse located near Pittsburgh, PA. “We do foresee to building up the technical team in the Canadian market during 2016 and beyond,” Renaudeau said.
Firaz Sharaf will manage the activities of two existing independent sales representative organizations: Dier International, headed by Greg Reid and located in Unionville, Ontario; and Industries Laferriere, Mascouche, Quebec, which is managed by Francois Laferriere. A technical service agent is based in Toronto.
Sharaf has 20 years of experience working in the electronics, automotive and medical industries. Most recently, he was Director, Business Development for Rose Integration, a major supplier of precision machined components and complex mechanical assemblies for aerospace and other demanding markets. He holds a BEng. Degree from University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
Sepro was one of the first companies in the world to develop Cartesian beam robots for injection-molding machines, introducing its first CNC controlled “manipulator” in 1981. Today, Sepro Group is one of the largest independent sellers of Cartesian robots.
Customers around the world are supported by wholly-owned daughter companies in Germany, Spain, Benelux, the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, China and, in 2016, Canada. Numerous direct sales and service offices as well as independent business partners, distributors and service hubs extend Sepro’s global network to over 40 other countries. To date, Sepro has equipped more than 25,000 injection-molding machines worldwide. The company’s global turnover for 2015 is expected to exceed €90 million.
