The AV&R company in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville designs and manufactures high-precision abrasive finishing and visual inspection machines for parts which are installed in more than 200 manufacturing companies around the world. Its CEO, Jean-François Dupont, today wishes to broaden AV&R’s scope of action outside the aeronautics sector, where the company generates most of its turnover.
Published at 7:00 a.m.
AV&R, for automation, vision and robotics, celebrated its 30th anniversary last week by welcoming its employees, financial partners, suppliers and subcontractors to its offices and factory to mark the event. The company is housed in the very recognizable pyramid-shaped building located on the side of Highway 30 in Saint-Bruno.
Jean-François Dupont, CEO of AV&R, wanted to mark this important milestone in the history of the company he founded in 1994 when the Walsh Automation group asked him to create a vision and robotics division with the promising to sell it to her when she reached the break-even point.
“Walsh was sold in 1999 to a British company and it took us six years before we could buy our division,” recalls Jean-François Dupont.
In 2005, the group which made inspection and finishing robots in all industrial fields, whether nuclear, aluminum or paper mills, decided to concentrate on a single sector: aeronautics.
“We specialized in aeronautics with the objective of becoming the best manufacturer of finishing and inspection robots in the world. »
In 2014, we acquired Imac Automatisation to increase our production capacity while major aircraft engine manufacturers like GE and Pratt were launching new models, we had to meet demand.
Jean-François Dupont, CEO of AV&R, automated production engineer, ETS graduate and today ambassador of the educational establishment
The Saint-Bruno company has thus developed strategies for co-financing programs with GE, Pratt and Rolls-Royce, in Great Britain, as well as the engine manufacturer Safran.
The company quickly became the supplier for all of their factories as well as many of their subcontractors, where its abrasive finishing and visual inspection machines ensure the finishing of precision parts.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
AV&R’s abrasive finishing and visual inspection machines finish precision parts.
AV&R also provides maintenance, repair and overhaul of used aircraft engine parts which must be regularly overhauled and completely refurbished. The company has machines in all major maintenance centers all over the world.
Towards greater diversification
AV&R had to make a turnaround in 2020, when the market collapsed due to the pandemic. To mitigate its losses in the aeronautics sector, the company entered the orthopedic products market.
AV&R’s industrial robots make it possible to detect all anomalies on knee, ankle or hip implants which are made of titanium.
“We were looking for a niche market like aeronautics and, since 2020, we have tackled orthopedic products. We polish the implants and detect any anomalies that may appear to ensure the accuracy of each product,” says Jean-François Dupont.
AV&R has sold more than 2,000 machines worldwide to date and continues to market 35 to 45 each year. However, the company is hampered in its development because it does not have enough production capacity.
“There are a lot of planes sold all over the world, our machines are in demand, but we cannot increase the rate because we do not have the manpower and we do not does not have the financial leverage to ensure this expansion,” laments the CEO.
Looking for investment partners
The company’s main shareholders are Fondaction de la CSN and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, which own 68% of its shares. Fondaction has been there since the management buyout in 2005, and the Solidarity Fund during the takeover of Imac Automatisation in 2014. Jean-François Dupont and his partner François Arrien own the remaining shares.
“We have good financial partners who have been there for a long time, but we would like to have access to development capital, to have new, more aggressive partners who would be eager to carry out transactions,” explains Mr. Dupont.
The entrepreneur says he regularly meets with investment funds that might wish to participate in AV&R’s next wave of growth, but nothing has come to fruition so far.
“We have always been profitable, except during COVID-19 and during the 2008 crisis. We now want to attack the broader manufacturing market. In Quebec, there are plenty of entrepreneurs who simply don’t have the time to think about robotizing their activities.
“There are plenty of companies that still polish parts by hand. We could manufacture around a hundred machines per year. It has become accessible, but SME owners need to take the time to look into it,” suggests the CEO. Its industrial robots retail for between $400,000 and 3 million per unit.
AV&R’s philosophy has always been to humanize robotics, to make it accessible so that the worker who polished the parts by hand can operate the robot himself. This is why the company has developed easy-to-use software, so that manual experience can be combined with machine precision.
