This certification allows Walloon companies to use funding support to rely on our consulting and support services in their development in Eastern European countries (Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia)

A real recognition that comes in the continuity of our strategy of continuous improvement and implementation of high value-added services within VALIANS INTERNATIONAL to support the success of our customers in Eastern Europe.

On May 26th and 27th, the Valians International team gathered in Polanica -Zdroj to celebrate together the 10th anniversary of the company.

It was a great opportunity to enjoy quality time together and team building – let’s have a look at our best moments in Video!

The Valians team is now resourced and ready for the next 10 years by your side!

VALIANS INTERNATIONAL CELEBRATES ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY!

Dear customers, partners, and friends, it’s already been 10 years since Valians International was created by Maryline Bertheau-Sobczyk and Cédric FROMONT

– 10 years of passion for our profession

– 10 years of trust in us and that we are by your side for the success of your development in Eastern Europe.

We thank you for this wonderful human and professional adventure. We are ready for the next 10 years of success in Eastern Europe!

See you soon,

Valians International celebrates its 10th anniversary this year in May 2022!

For the occasion we would like to thank all our partners for their trust.
👉 10 years of meeting and partnerships 🌍🚀and many beautiful years to come.

Valians International is celebrating its 10th year anniversary !

For the occasion, we wish to thank all our clients for their trust.
👉 10 years of « Sucess stories » 🌍🚀and more wonderful years to come.

The worldwide pandemic situation that started at the beginning of 2020 has accelerated a global trend that emerged few years earlier of nearshoring sourcing and production operations. This was the consequence of a strategy of ”derisking” supply chain disruption: higher costs from Asia, diversification of sourcing options, made in Europe awareness and better control on logistic costs and delivery time.

 Companies from different industries (machinery, industrial equipment, retail, …) started to investigate other alternatives to China and Eastern Europe emerged as one of the major focus for European companies due to its closeness to European market with relatively low production costs.

 What is the situation after 2 years? Is Eastern Europe an alternative to China? What are the main factors of success and major challenges in sourcing in Eastern Europe nowadays?

 At Valians, we’ve been conducting sourcing and investment operations in Eastern Europe for over 25 years. From the beginning of the pandemic situation, we’ve been focusing our effort on ensuring access to reliable information and data in order to deliver short-time alternative to the Asian situation. This involved exhaustive identification of local suppliers, their access to raw materials, production capacities and availability, and also evaluation of best production location within the region via comparative investment and sourcing analysis.

 Sourcing in Eastern Europe is a complex and quite different process than in China. 1st of all, when you consider sourcing in Eastern Europe, you need to consider sourcing in over 15 different countries of different sizes, industrial know-how and cultures. It involves allocating many resources in identifying and qualifying reliable suppliers. In many cases, suppliers are not identifiable at 1st sight (no major fairs like Canton, no catalogues of suppliers, very few and low matured sectorial associations).

 2ndly, access to reliable information on suppliers is often quite limited. Without a local presence speaking local language and culture, it makes it very challenging to collect data.

 3rdly, suppliers from Eastern Europe are in most cases of lower size and production capacities than in China. It means that volumes cannot easily be transferred from China to Eastern Europe with 1 supplier. Limited financial assets of suppliers will also often limit them to expand production capacities to reach high volumes expected. Eastern Europe is rather a complementary option to China in a strategy of derisk than a total replacement option in the short term.

 During these last 2 years, our teams located in the different countries in Eastern Europe has been travelling intensively: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, … to strengthen our position with our local network including public institutions – investment and export agencies. We edited several materials on sourcing opportunities per major industry in each country in Eastern Europe, and presented several webinars. During this period of time, we provided support to over 30 companies looking to nearshore production operations in Eastern Europe.

 Major outcomes: flexibility and resilience of Eastern European Suppliers

In the period between 2020 and beginning of 2021, most of the projects were mainly disrupted by the Pandemic situation as many factories were on a hybrid phase (limited number of workers present on site). But in the meantime, many Eastern European suppliers managed to adapt to the situation and to rapidly be competitive towards new demands from European companies, thanks to the fact that they had production capacities available and to the competitiveness of local currency. Some very successful operations were conducted by our team, especially in the plastic and packaging industry.

 From mid-2021, many Eastern European factories started to be at full capacity. In the meantime, worldwide situation on lack of raw materials and pressure on labour costs generated a need to identify new sources of suppliers.

 Thanks to our long-standing experienced team of partners present in each Eastern European country, we managed to collect in-depth reliable sourcing opportunities and identify a very large database of potential suppliers in most of the major industries. This allows us to get fast access to potential sources of suppliers and get a comprehensive and comparative view on the different sourcing options for our clients in the whole region.

 Like many companies in the world, Eastern European suppliers are directly hit by the current supply chain reshifting and limited access to raw materials. Nevertheless, Eastern European suppliers are in most cases very flexible and capable to adapt very rapidly to this environment. We see many suppliers willing and capable to reshift efficiently their production (automotive to consumer goods, finish goods to bathroom elements, …).We currently conduct successful operations for our clients in metal-working and aluminium parts, plastic consumer goods and home interior.

 Keys to success

A successful nearshoring of sourcing and production activities in Eastern Europe should be based on:

–       Being aware of the diversity of the industrial landscape of each country

–       Not comparing to the ”traditional” sourcing process from China

–       Focusing on generating successful landed costs operations (included direct and indirect costs), and rather on small volumes to start with, as a complement to China

–       Willing to allocate time and resources on identifying and qualifying the right suppliers

–       Going through a preliminary comparative sourcing analysis between the different countries in Eastern Europe to focus on most promising wins

–       Being supported by local experts on the ground having already a deep knowledge of industrial landscape and database of suppliers and with the capacity to coordinate the project in the whole region

 Trends and prospects 

The current situation in Ukraine and Russia will generate new challenges for Eastern European suppliers in gaining access to raw materials and shows once more the importance of diversifying its supply chain options. Eastern European suppliers show strong resiliance to external factors and their capacity to find short term solutions will definitely be an advantage in the current context.

Additionally, we currently see opportunities for strategic investment through acquisition of local suppliers in the region who are often willing to grow but usually lack of financial capacities. This solution enables foreign companies to secure production operations within Europe, using competitive and reliable existing production capacities.

click here for the pdf version : Nearshoring of sourcing and production operations in Eastern Europe: Situation and major outcomes after 2 years PDF

At the beginning of July, the Globallians convention was held in Marseille physically and in digital. On this occasion, Maryline Bertheau-Sobczyk was elected co-president of the network with Jean-Pierre Labry, President of Export Pulse.

Today Globallians has a network of international experts in more than 70 countries via 11 members and its teams of more than 300 collaborators.

„We have an ambitious roadmap to grow and better support you in your international development.”

Finally the physical meetings! In June the Valians team met in person in Krakow! It was a moment of discussion, sharing of experiences, feedback on the different projects and above all a moment of conviviality which we have missed so much these last months.

VALIANS INTERNATIONAL is proud to have contributed to the organisation of the e-mission in Poland for 22 French SMEs members of the FEEF (Fédération des Entreprises et Entrepreneurs de France)

During 2 days, the companies had the opportunity to exchange in digital format with wholesalers, distributors and logisticians as well as with the Polish buyers of the supermarket chains including Carrefour, Leclerc and Intermarché. More than 80 B2B meetings were held!

In 2020, the e-commerce market in Poland will experience the strongest growth for several years. In addition, this market is forecast to grow at double-digit rates over the next three years. Our Managing Partner, Cédric FROMONT was glad to give Finnish companies from Business Finland its expertise of the e-commerce market in Poland in collaboration with the largest marketplace in the country Allegro.pl

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Badanie rynku i Strategia

Radosnych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia  oraz dużo szczęścia i samych sukcesów w nadchodzącym Nowym Roku 2020

Valians International będzie obecne podczas największych targów internacjonalizacji europejskiej: GOING GLOBAL, 27/28 Listopada 2019 w Londynie, Excel, stanowisko 382. Skontaktuj się z nami by umówić się na spotkanie, by odnieść sukces na rynku Europy Wschodniej.

Alexandre Souvannavong, ekspert Valians International, prowadził 3 lipca 2018 warsztaty pt. „W jaki sposób rozwinąć się w krajach Europy Centralnej” dla przedsiębiorstw z regionu południowego Prowansja-Alpy-Lazurowe Wybrzeże. Spotkania 2B2 odbyły się zaraz po prezentacji.

VALIANS INTERNATIONAL towarzyszyło delegacji 6 przedsiębiorstw tunezyjskich z branży tekstylno-odzieżowej w Polsce. Zorganizowano przeszło 50 spotkań B2B z najważniejszymi zleceniodawcami polskimi.

Okazja do nawiązania współpracy firm polskich z firmami tunezyjskimi z branży tekstylnej i prêt à porter : Poniedziałek 26 marca 2018, Hotel InterContinental Warszaw, Emilii Plater 49 (sala Grand Symphony, 3. Piętro)

Radosnych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia  oraz dużo szczęścia i samych sukcesów w nadchodzącym Nowym Roku 2018

After years of inactivity, the Honorary Consulate of Belgium in Krakow will reopen its doors under the supervision of M. Philippe De Brouwer, new honorary Consul. The consulate will be based at Valians’ offices in Cracow and will have many aspects to support Belgian citizens and businesses.

Together with Enterprise Mauritius, (the National Export Promotion Agency of Mauritius) a delegation of 10 mauritian companies came in Poland to meet with potential buyers. For this occasion VALIANS has organized around 75 B2B meeting in textile, food and rum industries.

Cédric Fromont, Managing Partner of VALIANS has presented the business opportunities of the Polish, Czech and Slovak markets to companies of the Rhône-Alpes region. 2B2 meetings were held following the presentation.

Porozmawiaj o swoich projektach z jednym z naszych ekspertów:

• Przez telefon
• Za pomocą wideokonferencji: Skype lub system wideokonferencji VALIANS International

Alexandre Souvannavong, Valians’s expert has presented business opportunities offered by Central and Eastern Europe for French entreprises during a conference organized by the General Confederation of Small and Medium-sized enterprises (CGPME).

Cedric FROMONT, the associate director and co-founder of VALIANS International, presented with specific examples the key to successful development in Eastern Europe.

Maryline BERTHEAU-SOBCZYK, CEO of  Valians International, has been interwied together with a panel of experts to present the economical and culural situation of Poland, and its growing place on the international scene.

Magazine dedicated to the international business news. Cédric FROMONT, vice president and co-founder of VALIANS International, presents the current situation and the potential of the research and innovating sectors in Poland.

As an expert on Poland, VALIANS met many company directors in order to assist them in their projects in Poland. Nicole Bricq, as the former Minister of the French Foreign Trade, also participated in these meetings with Maryline BERTHEAU-SOBCZYK.

Magazine dedicated to international business in which the French Foreign Trade Advisors share their analyses and their experiences on the markets. Maryline BERTHEAU-SOBCZYK, CEO of VALIANS International presents her own analysis of the economic situation in Poland.

Magazine dedicated to business and management based on young CEOs’ analyses and points of view. Cédric FROMONT, representative of Poland for the CJD (the Young Business Leaders Organization), shares his analysis of the recent economic and social changes in Poland.

Magazine dedicated to the international business news. Maryline BERTHEAU-SOBCZYK, CEO and co-founder of VALIANS International presents Poland’s economic outlook for the year 2014.