We really had to over the last 18 months not
only to transform ourselves from a supply unit
of a big international group into a standalone business
but to change completely the product and the
market we were targeting from stainless steel
application into batteries for electrical vehicles
and at the same time changing ownership,
governance,
flow sheet and our go-to-market strategy.
And now we are producing this intermediate product,
serving Asia, serving the US, serving Europe.
And we are very lucky to have Tesla as our
main client for the next couple of years.
And when you've been working on these
major redirections of the company,
that doesn't just happen,
right?
So what are some of the keys to success?
First is to be humble and start with the market.
At risk in this big engineering project,
you know,
you are so obsessed by making it happen,
making it work according to design.
But let's say if the design is obsolete
or if you produce the wrong product,
you have to be humble to put yourself into question.
And the client, the market is the truth.
Bring your team,
bring people,
bring all the stakeholders on board.
And this momentum, this trust is contagious.
Contagious,
contagious with,
you know,
French state,
contagious with investors,
banks,
insurance.
You can't imagine the number of people
involved in such a large project.
And speed and determination are two factors very important.
You should really decide, act very fast.
And how do you just,
you know,
because that's not easy sometimes to
both work with speed and make sure that
everybody's following.
It's one of my challenges for sure.
Keep an open and transparent communication at all levels.
So people know that there's no kind of hidden agenda.
There is no twist.
There are no, no.
When Valet divested the business,
there was one point of time,
there was one option which collapsed.
And so now I sat down with my unions.
They asked, we need to send the market a signal.
We'll launch an employee shareholding scheme.
So everybody will be shareholder of this company.
And by showing this,
and if we have,
you know,
an anonymous consent and support,
it's OK.
These guys, they want to save their company.
They want to do something.
And in a month and a half,
we negotiated an agreement,
collective agreement.
Everybody was behind from management to workers.
Honestly,
it has been a difficult journey because
even if you know you rationalize things,
you have the plan,
you have the funding,
you have the stakeholders,
etc.
And then we are,
you know,
in the extractive industry,
so in mining sector.
The relation in particular in New Caledonia to land is very special.
Then you are not immune to the political environment,
etc.
So this transition could have been very smooth.
It hasn't been because there has been some
reaction people didn't understand from the outside.
There was even some violent reactions.
There was also some kind of resource nationalism pressure.
So they say,
oh,
let's,
you know,
let's nationalize the asset.
And explaining to people that we need to be open to the world,
we need investors.
It has been really a journey.
So it was really a total commitment from the entire team here to,
let's say,
convince,
resist sometimes,
and then move forward.
Well, thank you very much, Antonin.