Engineering & Works

Guillaume Arsaut, Business Unit Manager at Cegelec Bordeaux Génie Climatique within the Pôle VEF Tertiaire Centre-Est Sud, talks about his experience and about the history of his business unit, having spent nearly twenty years at Cegelec.

Could you tell us about your career?

I joined Cegelec in 2000. I began at Cegelec Pau, where I worked as a Project Manager for seven years, and then moved to Cegelec Bordeaux Génie Climatique as Business Unit Manager in 2007, following the acquisition of Tauzin.

Could you describe the history of Cegelec Bordeaux Génie Climatique?

When I joined the business unit, Cegelec Bordeaux Génie Climatique was losing steam, due to a serious lack of manpower. The acquisition of the Tauzin company, which specialises in plumbing/heating works, gave the business unit a boost. It generated revenue of €3 million, with stronger expansion in the small/medium service sector.

As it happened, the head of Tauzin was a member of the Compagnon du Devoir association, which promotes training of young people. We retained this company philosophy and welcome Compagnon du Devoir trainees every year who are undergoing their Tour de France training.

And today?

Today, Cegelec Bordeaux Génie Climatique is doing well, with annual revenue of €5 million. Our segmentation is unusual – we generate 15% of our revenue in rehabilitation of occupied sites.
The remainder of our business activity is focused on the housing segment, i.e. rooms and bathrooms in student accommodations, senior residences, housing for young workers, hotels, nursing homes, retirement homes, etc.

And lastly, we work in the conventional service sector for which we carry out a wide range of projects, including, for example, the Bassin des Lumières project in Bordeaux, for which we have won a macro-works package with my counterpart at Cegelec Electricité, Michael Debarre; a fire station; a data center; and a project to raise the police prefecture building.

The geographic area within which we work is fairly broad. We cover the Bordeaux Urban Community, within a one-hour radius.

What is your added value? How do you manage competition?

We consider that our technical expertise is our added value. We also have an integrated design office, which reassures our customers, and we make it a point of honour to work together ahead of every project. Three people are in charge of estimating and detailed design, from handover to the as-built file.
In addition, we deliver expertise in refurbishment works in occupied premises – our signature expertise. There are few companies serving this segment, which requires greater attention to organisation and precise estimating.

What expansion opportunities do you see?

We want to further expand in refurbishment in occupied sites. For example, we recently worked on a project involving 200 housing units in Bordeaux, to boost their energy performance. The project consisted in installing heat pumps with a pipeline system directly on flat roofs. Our business unit plans to continue to work for our customers in this buoyant energy segment.

The further advantage is that the social housing authorities, who own units requiring refurbishment, also own new-build properties. They are among our customers, and they act, in a way, as business finders.