Conex, French leader in software solutions for customs and security procedures management, opens its capital to 21 Invest France to accelerate its development in France and internationally

21 Invest supports the company in its dynamic of expansion with an acquisition of a majority stake through its 6th generation of Funds. Alban and Bertrand Gruson, founders of the software publisher, are reinvesting significantly to drive an ambitious growth strategy for the years to come.

For nearly 40 years, Conex has supported companies involved in international trade, shippers and Registered Customs Representatives in optimizing their customs procedures through specialized software and associated services. The family-owned group holds more than two-thirds of the market in France, thanks to its historical expertise, its comprehensive range of solutions and its tailor-made offerings.

At the heart of the modernization of customs processes, Conex offers a digital platform dedicated to the processing of all types of customs and security declarations, and ensures the electronic exchange of data between private parties (suppliers, customers) and customs authorities in France and abroad.

Conex has established itself as an essential intermediary in the customs panorama for SMEs and multinationals alike, thanks to the experience of its 60 employees, as well as its agility and capacity for innovation in a complex and ever-evolving industry. The group's recognized expertise has enabled it to count on a base of over 1,600 clients and to post sales of €M 12, with double-digit growth over the last three years and solid profitability.

21 Invest France will support Conex in accelerating its organic growth in France and internationally, as recently initiated with three subsidiaries in the UK, Ireland and Belgium. In addition, 21 will also support Conex in its external growth strategy, with the acquisition of European players to broaden its offering and/or strengthen existing solutions. Finally, Conex will continue its action in terms of sustainability, in line with 21's policy and the regulations in force in its industry.

Alban and Bertrand Gruson, founder and co-directors of the Conex group, comment:

"We are very satisfied to have met a partner like 21 Invest on our growth path, who has understood our business and the market opportunities, and is willing to support us in deploying a strategy of conquest. In our search for capital, we chose 21 Invest, given the entrepreneurial and family spirit that drives both our organizations."

Stéphane Perriquet, Managing Partner at 21 Invest France, comments:

"Conex has all the hallmarks of the projects we support at 21: a leading position in a buoyant market, excellent financial performance, a business model offering high recurrence and, last but not least, a fragmented European market presenting solid opportunities for consolidation. We were also attracted by the family project, led by Alban and Bertrand Gruson, which fits in perfectly with our DNA. Conex has the expertise, the customer recognition and the perfect positioning to change scale and consolidate its leadership in France and internationally.”

List of participants

21 Invest France (Stéphane Perriquet, Hadrien Jourdan, Patrick Aris), Conex (Alban Gruson, Bertrand Gruson)

Advisors to the buyers
Financial due diligence: Crowe HAF (Thomas Corbineau, Julien Latrubesse), Strategic & IT due diligence: Indefi x Singulier (Mathieu Ferel, David Toledano, Clément Huguet), Legal and Tax advisor: Hogan Lovells (Stéphane Huten, Ali Chegra, Maximilien Roland, Shanna Hodara), Legal and Financing advisor: Jeausserand-Audouard (Marie-Paule Noel)

Advisors to the sellers
Financial VDD: Exelmans (Stéphane Dahan, Eric Chan, Thibault Gerald); Legal counsel: Jeausserand-Audouard (Patrick Loiseau, Juliette Ritouret)

Financing
CIC Private Debt (Nicolas Offroy, Baptiste Robin), Lenders' legal counsel: Nabarro Béraud (Magali Béraud)

About Conex
As a partner to key accounts and SMEs in all sectors of activity, CONEX develops and markets a range of collaborative tools for managing customs and security declarations. Its customers -importing/exporting companies, carriersand RDEs (Registered Customs Representatives) -use its solutions and services to optimise and secure the entry, processing and electronic exchange of declarations for all their international trade in goods. For almost 40 years, CONEX has been taking partin developments in international trade and the supply chain, supporting companies in their customs development and working with European and international customs administrations. CONEX is headquartered near Lille (Orchies), with offices in Paris and three subsidiaries in Belgium, Irelandand the United Kingdom. An independent SME founded in 1985, CONEX has around sixty employees. For more information, visit www.conex.net
Contact: Carole Mignonet, carole.mignonet@conex.net
Agence C3M: Michelle Amiard, michelle@agence-c3M.com

About 21 Invest
An active and responsible shareholder alongside management for 30 years, the 21 Invest group has supported over 100 companies based in France, Italy and Poland through local funds. In France, the investment strategy focuses on companies combining growth and recurrence in 4 sectors: healthcare, technology/software, education and business services. 21 Invest supports the transformation of companies by providing its expertise in structuring and accelerating growth, particularly through market consolidation. For more information, visit www.21invest.com
Contact: Astou Ciss, a.ciss@21investfrance.com

CUSTOMS:

The power of artificial intelligence in document digitalisation

CONEX is launching its new OCR via conex™ module which, thanks to artificial intelligence, identifies in documents the data elements which will be useful for customs declarations, digitalises and analyses them before formatting them for direct integration into its customs clearance solutions, precisely where declarants need them.

By developing this new application in its customs software suite, CONEX saves operators from the time-consuming and tedious work of manual data entry. The relevant data elements are automatically extracted on the fly from international trade-related workflow documents, thus accelerating and securing all customs processing.

Supporting customs services in their technical development

The application is self-learning. Combined with the competence of the customs operator, it is enriched to deploy its full capacity after only a few documents processed by the declarants.

It has the ability to adapt to all types of documents, invoices, packing lists, etc. and speeds up and secures all data entry into customs declarant tools without the risk of error. By reducing the task of data entry upstream, the CONEX platform enables declarants to become more productive and to improve the safety and comfort of their work.

A number of customers have already adopted the module. They have found real opportunities for considerable gains in productivity when ramping up their customs processing.

“The return on investment, the ease of deployment and the security of customs processes are all decisive arguments for organisations. This new module takes its place within a whole series of changes to our customs declaration processing offering, thanks to Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence”, concludes Bertrand GRUSON, Managing Director at CONEX.

CONTACT PRESSE
AGENCE C3M - Michelle Amiard - michelle@agence-c3m.com

WE’RE EXHIBITING!

CONEX systems Ltd is pleased to present its customs and security software solutions at MULTIMODAL 2022.

CUSTOMS via conex™ : 

A solution for all customs management needs: Common & Simplified Import, Export &Transit - Special Procedures

SAFE via conex™ : 

Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS), Import Control System (EU ICS), Safety & Security
GB (S&S GB)

TARIFF via conex™: 

National & European customs tariff classification and Harmonised System Notes.

REGISTER FREE!

Transports Mesguen chose Conex solutions to create a post-Brexit Customs activity

Since Brexit became a reality, Transports Mesguen, an SME located at the northern tip of Finistère, has been using Conex solutions for clearing goods en route or arriving from the United Kingdom. A highly strategic step in the Supply Chain, especially for food, live and ultra-fresh products.

A strategic challenge

To adapt to Brexit, the SME of 50 million euros at the head of a national fleet of 150 lorries created a whole new 6-declarant-strong department from scratch at the company headquarters in Saint-Pol-de-Léon. This new Customs department has been equipped and trained in the new regulatory obligations related to transporting goods to and from Great Britain, and in Conex's specialised software: the France and United Kingdom Customs solution, - Management of customs procedures on both sides of the Channel - and the EU ICS and S&S GB modules for processing security declarations.

This new declaration activity has become a profit justifyand a competitive asset for Transports Mesguen. But in reality, the project to internalize customs and security declarations was also strategic for the company: the United Kingdom's share of turnover is 25% of the 50-million-euro total. However, a significant part of the movements concern ultra-fresh food products, vegetables, poultry and seafood products. In this Supply Chain which delivers products on D+1 most of the time, outsourcing declarations to a third party could have penalised its reactivity.

Philip Gac, general manager in charge of financial and HR for the company, initiator of the project, explains:

“Entrusting customs declarations to a third party is possible on paper, but in practice, it multiplies the number intermediaries, communication difficulties, and the risk of delays…. In the world of ultra-fresh transport, when the goods must be delivered on D+1 (we are talking about live crustaceans, in particular), the Supply Chain cannot suffer the slightest delay, otherwise the goods may be lost! Above all, we did not want our lorries to be blocked at the borders upon arrival in England or France!”

It’s ancient history

Transports Mesguen has been developing transport services between the continent and the United Kingdom since the 1960s. But over the past thirty years, since 1993 with the United Kingdom’s entry into the European Union, import/export formalities had disappeared.

Until we heard talk of Brexit. As a result, on January 1^st, 2021, a department resurrected the service on brand new foundations: new regulations, new process, new team, new software... The context of political indecision and regulatory uncertainties surrounding the implementation of Brexit forced the SME to adapt, a push on the brakes then rapid acceleration, both in building up skills for its staff and for the implementation of software.

Conex has supported this Brexit project since the start, two years ago, and it is with the same determination that the two companies have worked on it, the editor adapting its software offering throughout the political negotiations and training the Transport Mesguen personnel.

Collaboration with Conex

March 2019, the decision to commit to the organisation of an internal customs clearance service for movements to and from the United Kingdom is taken. They will need teams and software and Philip Gac, who has taken the initiative to run the project, approaches Conex: “Conex is the market leader, its reliability has been confirmed to me by several freight forwarders that I know. The overall project already included enough uncertainties, I wanted security with regard to the IT solution to be chosen. And the first contacts with the teams went well from the start. In addition, Conex had the clear advantage of offering the CUSTOMS via conex™ software which is connected to UK Customs (CHIEF, CDS). Thus, the information about the goods that we transport for our customers is entered and/or interfaced only once, either on the French side or on the UK side to be sent to customs on both sides of the Channel; they appear mirrored in the Conex solution on either side of the border without additional work.”

Philip Gac estimates the need for 6 or 7 people for his customs team; but hiring, while Brexit is not yet a certainty, is a challenge. He then offered all the administrative staff the possibility of joining the future Customs department, which clearly meant training his staff in the new profession of customs declarant and, therefore, in the Conex tools. 8 people are on the starting blocks, this is enough to cover the needs of a service open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. 7 days a week. 3 people, including himself, start training in the spring of 2019, and will in turn train their future colleagues in the new department.

In parallel with the training, IT work is carried out to integrate the Conex tools into Mesguen's information system: this involves limiting manual entries by directly injecting the data already present in Mesguen's accounting and transactional tools into the heart of Conex interfaces. Philip Gac added: “This integration of Conex into our IT system went very well, and for our team it was really a condition for managing large volumes quickly and without the risk of error!

A thwarted launch schedule

Transports Mesguen is ready for Brexit and customs declarations. Except tha,t as we know, nothing is done on time, that one Brexit postponement follows another and that for the SME, they must remain on alert, careful not to forget anything that they had just learned but could not yet apply. So, they continue to train on fictitious datasets for two hours a week, while continuing their usual work as if nothing had happened...

Finally, September 2020, the approach of D-Day again becomes credible and imminent. They are back in pre-project mode: in September, two employees are seconded to the customs department on a half-time basis, then full-time in October. In mid-November, training sessions for processing customs declarations resume every day for all future declarants. The horizon line is getting closer. And on January 1^st, 2021, the very first customs clearance declaration in the new post-Brexit customs system is completed successfully. “It was a lorryload of Scottish crabs that was to go to Spain. Live produce, of great value, a cargo of at least 100,000 euros to be processed urgently of course, which Transports Mesguen inherited almost at the very last minute.”

The first weeks will be busy... Customers have not anticipated the new customs complexity, and are discovering on the job that Brexit has changed handling arrangements, that lorries are no longer allowed to cross the borders of England if customs formalities have not been completely cleared… Not to mention that live produce must also obtain health certificates.

Mesguen and its teams are in charge, recovering missing invoices, making dozens of calls to obtain missing information urgently, inputting and clearing customs with all their might... The first week will remain memorable, working from 8 a.m. to 2 am… In the end, the service is fully operational, Mesguen has set up a new activity based on Conex software, and developed its turnover, its teams have proven their ability to take on a memorable challenge and deliver!

About Transports Mesguen

For 70 years, the company has specialised in the road transport of foodstuffs (fruit, vegetables, seafood, etc.), fresh or frozen. It has a fleet of 85 refrigerated semi-trailer lorries. Among other things, Transports Mesguen ensures the transport of industrial products, with more than 75 semi-trailers. It also has several temperature-controlled storage warehouses. With multiple outgoing lines, it can respond quickly to calls in France and England. https://www.transports-mesguen.fr/

 PRESS CONTACT

AGENCE C3M - Michelle Amiard - michelle@agence-c3m.com

For each regulation, an adapted via conex™ software solution!