Simplify to amplify: Our path to electrify the future

As Nexans faces the challenges ahead, I can’t think of a time where our organization has been in such a favorable position.

Why do I say that? In February, on our Capital Markets Day, we announced exciting news: a new strategic plan that is set to shape our future success. More than an equity story, what we detailed last March was an in-depth blueprint to transform Nexans into a pure electrification player and global leader, thanks to our strategy “simplify to amplify”.

After months of mega-trends analysis, it became clear that we are neither large enough nor resilient enough to remain a generalist with all the activities we currently undertake. In short, remaining a global leader would require more investment than we are currently able to make.

So instead, our new strategic plan will keep us focused on electrification, targeting our investments across our entire value chain: transmission, distribution and usage of electricity.

By becoming a specialist, we will take the global lead so that, more than ever, we can proudly say: Nexans electrifies the future!

Simplify to amplify isn’t only a philosophy to our activities — it will transform our portfolio as well. Which is why we took the opportunity to move away from focusing on 17,000 customers to only our most strategic 4,000 customers. Doing so means we can serve our customers better, provide more value and ensure we shift from being a commodity to a valuable service and solutions provider.

In the coming months, we will widen our perimeter in electrification with an aggressive M&A sequence that will make Nexans a worldwide leader in this field. Our choices will be driven by our desire to find companies that expand or enlarge our assets, values and skills in electrifications.

That said, I want to make it clear that the activities Nexans is divesting remain highly valuable and profitable in growing markets. We simply don’t have enough resources to support them all in the long term.

In the meantime, we are not in a rush. There will be no radical transformation plan and no plants. We are, instead, looking for new investors and partners who are global specialists in their field and who can propose a real industrial development plan to support these activities and offer them the future they deserve. As I said, I am extremely optimistic about the future of Nexans. For the first time in a long time, we are in a leading position, with a clear roadmap and a long-term vision. The trust of analysts, investors and customers has returned. Our employees are engaged. Supported by mega-trends in electrification and backed by management, the best is yet to come.

By 2030, we will need sustainable, renewable, decarbonized, digitally managed and optimized electricity — for people, for business and for the planet. It’s an electrical revolution that will demand a new generation of cables and systems capable of supporting massive flows.

And we are ready to take on that challenge because we are the pioneers of tomorrow’s electrification. We are Nexans.

In the third issue of our Digital Magazine, we delve deeper into Nexans’ transformation into a pure player electrification leader — ready to supply the cables, systems and expertise needed to create the sustainable, renewable, decarbonized world of tomorrow. We also talk about our Innovation approach including the opportunity around the Internet of Things, Offshore Wind and some our work in Africa to support the continent’s electrification needs as well as our work there with the Nexans Foundation.