The supply chain: spearheading European expansion for Hardis Group
The international development trajectory of activities revolving around the Reflex logistics execution software suite was launched in 2017. It is based primarily on extending the functional coverage of its solutions: through particularly significant R&D efforts (14% of turnover in 2020, and a similar forecast for 2021) but also, in the future, through external growth.
Hardis Group’s new Polish site is also in line with previous openings of European subsidiaries, which have already reached their level of maturity: “while the year 2020 closed with a stable business volume in Spain, despite the signing of major new contracts, the Dutch subsidiary saw an acceleration of 57% and represents nearly a quarter of the potential for supply chain projects within the group,” explains Nicolas Odet, President of Hardis Group. On the strength of this very positive observation, Hardis Group has now decided to extend the deployment of its logistics activities in Central Europe, via its new establishment in Poland. The company’s ambition is to open one branch per year, on average, by 2025.
Poland: an extremely dynamic market
For Hardis Group, Poland is a long way from being a virgin market. Several of its customers, among the largest global logistics providers, such as FM Logistic, for whom Reflex WMS is the core of the logistics information system, have deployed their activities in Central Europe, and in Poland in particular. In total, no fewer than fifty businesses are already using Reflex in the region.
In addition to this existing situation, the choice of Poland is based on the country’s strong economic dynamism, its strategic positioning in Europe and its place of choice in the field of logistics, not to mention the recent roll-out of public Cloud solutions.
In fact, Hardis Group will be mainly using the Reflex SaaS model to meet the logistics challenges of the most dynamic business sectors: e-commerce/omni-channel, logistics service providers, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing (with Reflex WMS for Factory) and even the agri-food sector.
Multi-geographic synergies for pan-European projects
This new location, like Spain and the Netherlands previously, is primarily intended to create the capacity to operate local projects, in the language of the country and consistent with its habits and culture. The operational, sales and marketing departments, which will be responsible for setting up the brand, developing its commercial activities and building the Polish team, will, for this reason, be staffed locally.
“We are actively recruiting, particularly for consultants capable of helping our clients to deploy our solutions,” explains Cécile Arnaud, Reflex’s international development director.
In a more global, pan-European context, the new subsidiary also provides Hardis Group with the opportunity to multiply its multi-geographical synergies, with the aim of addressing the transnational projects of key clients on a European, and even a worldwide scale, through its integrator partners.