Sepro managing director Jean-Michel Renaudeau leaves the company

Jean-Michel Renaudeau

Jean-Michel Renaudeau, longtime managing director of France-based automation supplier Sepro Group, has left the company.

Renaudeau stepped down on May 15, Sepro said in a June 3 statement, and the company has appointed Michel Maire as interim manager while it seeks a successor to Renaudeau.

Renaudeau joined Sepro in 1990 as the company’s European director of sales. He became the managing director in 2005.

In the statement, Eric Radat, president of Sepro Group, commended Renaudeau for his work in “building revenue and establishing highly successful strategic alliances.” However, Radat said, “we want to give a fresh boost to Sepro Group. We must go even further and be more efficient, especially as we contend with the current downturn in the automotive industry, Sepro’s largest end-market.”

Sepro Group will now enter a “new phase in its history, centred on strengthened efficiency and re-energized operations,” the statement said.

Sepro was one of the first companies in the world to develop Cartesian beam robots for injection molding machines, introducing its first CNC controlled “manipulator” in 1981. Today, Sepro offers three-, five-, six-axis servo robots and cobots; special-purpose units; and complete automation systems.

The company’s Canadian operation, Sepro Canada, is headquartered in Montreal.