Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

I don’t think my fundamental approach has changed. e2v already had 50 successful years behind it when I joined but, having been locked in a corporate existence for most of its time, it was clear that e2v needed to gain independence and accelerate its rate of change and responsiveness to the business world.

 

10 years later and the business world moves ever faster, making the ethos of focusing on responsiveness as valid now as then. So, change no, evolution I guess yes, in that a company must be more responsive and customer focused than ever.

It has been a challenging but extremely exciting 10 years, over which time the company has undergone a number of fundamental changes. It really started with the move of our then parent company, Marconi, to focus on Telecoms, closely followed of course by the ‘dot com’ crash. This presented me with the opportunity to lead a management buy out in partnership with 3i, followed by a successful flotation in 2004.

 

Since the flotation we have doubled sales largely through an aggressive acquisition programme. There have certainly been tough periods, negotiating the MBO at a time when Marconi was financially vulnerable and was concentrating on its own survival comes immediately to mind. Overall it is a period of my life of which I am extremely proud.

The increase is mainly a result of spend in the Grenoble imaging and semiconductor businesses, where generally higher levels of R & D are required than in our traditional business.

There is never a simple answer as to what the level needs to be, as some very important projects can include customer funding, reducing our direct costs, whilst others are 100 per cent funded by us.

What we can say is that research and development activities are the lifeblood of high technology companies like e2v and we do not see that changing.

The flotation has enabled e2v to become a master of its own destiny. We have been able to raise capital and accelerate growth via complementary acquisitions. As a result, the Group is now truly international in its operations, with five European manufacturing bases and one assembly facility in Mexico.

 

We are now also in the process of establishing a global procurement structure, with regional procurement offices to ensure that we keep in close contact with our global supplier base. How much of this would have been possible without the flotation is difficult to say, but it would certainly not have been achieved so quickly.

e2v is a portfolio business, with products defined under 2 groupings, electronic tubes and sensors and semiconductors. The broad range of markets addressed by these product groups is one of e2v’s strengths, in that as one market slows another tends to pick up.

It should also be noted that, within the sensors and semiconductors group, e2v continues to be one of the world’s leading suppliers of CCD imaging technology into the space and astronomy markets. Following 50 per cent organic growth in this area last year, we have maintained that high level of sales through to 2007. So the sensors and semiconductor group is actually consolidating a position of solid organic growth.