Portrait Séverine Besson-Thura

Séverine Besson-Thura, export sales director at Teclis Instruments

The 40 years old future manager of the small and medium size company, located at Longessaigne, wants to double its staffing within five years. Internationally oriented, she was in the CEO delegation early November, during François Hollande State visit.

• "Tedis Instruments has been selected to integrate the CEO delegation in Canada with François Hollande via Axelera competitive cluster. We were answering to two criteria: the company is innovative and evolves in the energies sector, says Séverinne Besson-Thura. In four days, I took the contact it should have taken four years to get. Such initiatives are business boosters.”
• Teclis Instruments designs, produces and markets some analytical tools for research laboratories. The company has a research and development department that is led by three Doctors of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, and above all its own engineering office. “We invest at least 25% of our turnover in research and development, says the manager. No patent is deposited. Our technological lead is our strength. ”
• The company position itself on three offers: the design of the tailored tools in the interface sciences (liquid/liquid, solid/liquid, gas/liquid) according to the customers’ requirement specifications; the design of standard tools for researches about mosses and emulsions; lastly, a laboratory service. “Implemented early 2014 for customers who wish to benefit of the expertise of our tools without investing, this service should represent 5 to 10% of our turnover in 2014. The goal is to reach 20%.” 
• Those tools are used by the industrials and academics of petrochemistry (that increases the turnover with 40% in 2013), the cosmetic industry, agribusiness and life sciences.Its customers are for instance L'Oréal, Nestlé, Sanofi, Total, Shell, among other manufacturers, CNRS, CEA, Oxford, Boston, Tokyo universities, among other academics. Teclis Instruments announces a 1,4M€ turnover in 2013, 85% internationally, for a 100 000€ net profit.”30% of our turnover are realised by our subsidiary in China.”
• Séverine Besson-Thura meets Teclis Instruments, in 2009, as a provider via her consulting agency, to mentor the company with its sales and marketing strategy. As the leaders progressively trust her, she completely integrates the team in October 2013 as export sales director. “This was the time when I started an EMBA at EMLYON to prepare the company takeover via a LBO in summer 2015.”
• The transition with the main founders, Alain Cagna and Gérard Esposito, is in progress, but the roadmap is determined already. “We did not reach a critical size, analyses Séverine Besson-Thura. My goal is to double the turnover and to increase the number of collaborators from 15 to 30 within five years.”

Stéphanie Polette