Artelia demonstrates resilience in the face of the crisis and accelerates expansion in Europe

2020 was deeply impacted by Covid-19 which challenged the entire engineering services industry. With health and safety as the top priority, Artelia succeeded to continue to service its customers throughout the crises thanks to the commitment of its 6,100 staff across 40 countries. 

Combining intrinsic performance and external growth, the Group pursued its development in Europe by successfully acquiring the Danish company MOE (now 1,000 staff) at the end of 2019.

Artelia consolidated its place among the top fifteen construction engineering firms in Europe, posting turnover of 637 million euros in 2020, a contraction of only 6.5% compared to the previous year. With a historically high backlog of orders of 20 months’ activity, the Group is looking forward with confidence, building on its “Horizon 2025” strategy.

Geographical span and multi-disciplinarity, two key factors for resilience 

With a turnover of nearly 250 million euros outside France, Artelia has asserted itself on a broad geographical footprint. This has added resilience to the Group in 2020 as the economies of Northern Europe and ASEAN countries, two strategic regions for Artelia, fared better through the COVID 19 crisis.
After successfully integrating the Danish engineering firm MOE at the end of 2019, the Group concluded several acquisitions in 2020 that contributed to widen both its fields of expertise and its geographical presence:

• The acquisition of Austin Newport, which specialises in renovating historic buildings, strengthened the position of the Group in the United Kingdom. 
• The majority stake in Principia and the acquisition of Olav Olsen, operating out of France and Norway respectively, reinforced the expertise of Artelia in maritime engineering, offshore structures and nuclear. 
• The acquisition of SDZ ProcessRéa provides the Group with valuable knowhow in automated industrial building logistics, demand for which has grown strongly with the surge in e-commerce. 

Artelia CEO Benoît Clocheret stated: “We were resilient in 2020 firstly thanks to the commitment, creativity and flexibility of our employees. In addition, we used these difficult times to progress. We defined our purpose, which is now stipulated in our by-laws, and reworded our five core values. We also set our new strategy which expresses the Group's aspirations for 2025: to increase our international presence (with the right mix of ambition and control), to consolidate our multi-disciplinarity and to leverage on digital technologies to transform our business.

To achieve this, we must stay true to our “human compass”, which is our deep aspiration to be useful to the world and to people, while improving inclusiveness day by day at our workplace and throughout our company. We want to provide our teams with an attractive work environment, which is essential, and of course reaffirm our commitment to a widely shared ownership of the company by managers and staff, a cornerstone of our Group.”
 

Tremendous human mobilization reinforcing the Group's share ownership model

Artelia is wholly owned by its managers and employees. The Group demonstrated the robustness of its share ownership model in 2020 as the foundation of its independence and entrepreneurial dynamics. The Group was able to count, in a volatile and uncertain global context, on the commitment and creativity of its staff members to overcome challenges together and, on occasion, even use them as drivers for transformation. 

In France, the quality of dialogue with unions was decisive in implementing work organisation arrangements. As the public health situation evolved, adapting ways of working made it possible to continue our activity and save jobs, while protecting health and safety of staff members and their families. As such, the digital tools Artelia is investing in have proved crucial to enable remote work on our planning and design activities.

Preparing for the future is also about meeting the talent management challenge. Despite the economic uncertainties of 2020, more than 900 women and men worldwide joined the Group worldwide.

Designing solutions for a positive life: a purpose that now acquires its full meaning

The pandemic prompted genuine questions about the future of our society all over the world. It has revealed some fragilities, upturned our lifestyles, and accelerated the transformation of our professions. Artelia is working hard to create tangible and innovative solutions to meet all these challenges.

Resilience to climate change and sustainable use of resources

• Studies to protect the African coastline in Togo and Benin, using drones
• Strategic assistance to the Grand Port Maritime on la Réunion Island on climate change adaptation
• Design of the "Climate Challenge Laboratory" in Denmark, which digital model includes a visualisation of CO2 emissions throughout the construction process
• Construction of the Origine real estate complex in Paris La Défense, featuring a mixed wood-concrete architecture with exemplary environmental performance 
• Launch of an innovation partnership to design a footbridge in 3-D printed structural concrete in Aubervilliers (North of Paris) that will significantly reduce its carbon footprint

Energy transition 

• Studies on hydroelectric and solar developments in the Saint Paul River in Liberia, an original hybrid solution focusing on decarbonized energy 
• Creation of battery parks to integrate intermittent renewable energy into the electricity grids in Burkina Faso and Senegal
• Assistance to RTE in setting up test floating wind farms in Groix, Gruissan, Leucate, and Fécamp in France
• Launch of a new wave of photovoltaic projects in Vietnam
• Historic partnership with Shell to modernise distribution networks worldwide including the development of oil-alternative fuels

Advanced industry

• Creation of a test bench for Auxitrol Weston, a supplier of sensors in France
• Reconstruction of the D11 unit at the Total platform in Normandy (West of France), which was seriously fire-damaged 
• Construction of the Danone IN’CUBE research and innovation centre in the Paris region

Regeneration of the built environment

• Comprehensive restructuring of the Aurore Tower in Paris - La Défense 
• Restructuring and modernising of the Nord and La Timone hospitals in Marseille (South of France) 
• Contribution to the modernisation program for 23 Italian hospitals in response to the public health crisis
• Renovation and extension of Generali headquarters in Madrid 

More livable cities

• Launch of the Grand Parc Garonne - Ile du Ramier project, the future green lung of the Toulouse metropolitan area which aims to reconcile city, river and nature
• Construction of the Austerlitz storage-restitution basin in Center of Paris, which is intended to make the Seine suitable for swimming by the Paris Olympic Games in 2024
• Development of a luxury residential and hotel complex in Porto Montenegro
• Design of the UN 17 Village, a sustainable urban area in Copenhagen with housing and commercial properties , built on  the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals

Multi-modal mobility 

• Creation of high class rapid bus infrastructure for the  Reykjavik Capital area, Iceland and which is likely to use hydrogen or other green energy
• Contracting assistance for transport authority Ile-de-France Mobilités in choosing the future operators of the Grand Paris Express lines 15, 16 and 17 
• Project management for the third metro line in Toulouse (South of France)

Read the Group's 2020 Annual Report on our website: www.arteliagroup.com

About Artelia: 
Artelia is an international multidisciplinary consultancy, engineering and project management group specialising in mobility, water, energy, building and industry. With 6,100 employees and turnover of €637 million in 2020, Artelia is one of Europe’s leading engineering groups, present in over 40 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Artelia is 100% owned by its managers and employees.