On Location at ALL Circuits: Deputy CEO Stephane Klajzyngier Explains How They Are Turning Global Scale Into Faster Wins

Twelve months after the DBG partnership, we get honest about what actually changes when an acquisition is more than a headline. From my recent visit to ALL Circuits' flagship facility south of Paris, Deputy CEO Stephane Klajzyngier and I break down the real milestones: shared purchasing of high-impact production equipment like SMT machines, AOI, and printers, plus the way joint line design can sharpen cost and competitiveness in the electronics manufacturing services market. The point isn’t “bigger is better” it’s how smarter CapEx decisions help you win the next RFQ.

From there, we move into growth strategy. We talk about the first common customer now starting sample builds and why entering the AI server market matters for diversification beyond automotive electronics. AI infrastructure also rewrites the rules on time to market: instead of 12–18 month ramps, customers expect weeks. That forces new thinking around investment readiness, capacity planning, and how an EMS partner proves it can move fast without cutting corners.

We also dig into what a truly global footprint unlocks: serving large OEMs that want manufacturing options across North America, Europe, and Asia, including Chinese customers exploring production outside China. Finally, we close with CES takeaways: humanoid robots as the next step toward decision-making AI, the potential role of robotics in elder care, and why smart glasses electronics could be a real manufacturing opportunity once the hype curve settles. If you enjoyed this, subscribe, share the show with a colleague, and leave a review with your take: which market will reshape EMS first, AI servers or robotics?

EMS@C-Level is hosted by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Global Electronics Association (https://www.electronics.org)

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Transcript

One Year After The DPG Deal

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 0:07

So, Stefan, pleasure to be here with you. Thanks for taking the time again. Likewise, Phil. Let's start with 12 months on from the uh the partnership with DPG, that all seems to be moving in the right direction. We've talked a bit about how well that's gone. When you look forward, what are the key milestones you see next coming up? What do you see as the progress that you can make in 2026 that you maybe couldn't have made prior to the acquisition?

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 0:35

Well, one of the um main milestones we talked about last time when you interviewed me, uh, were about the synergies between the two companies. And uh one which is already uh being uh being in place is regarding equipment manufacturers that we started uh buying together. Yeah. Um, you know, I'm talking about SMT machines, which are one of our biggest uh CapEx and all the other equipment, AOI, uh printers, etc. So now we design manufacturing lines in a very competitive way, which is critical for winning uh new businesses. Yeah. So that's number one, and that's already in motion. Number two is around commercial synergies, of course, and and we have our first common customer.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 1:26

Okay.

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 1:27

Uh cannot disclose yet, um, might be in the news uh in the coming uh in the coming months because we are just starting uh doing

Synergies That Change The Cost Base

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 1:35

uh the sample build right now. Uh but we're entering the uh AI server market, and that customer will actually help us expand in other fields of business. So it's also uh uh a very large business which is non-automotive, and you know that's one of our also strategic goals is to be a bit less dependent on uh automotive, which is representing a very high percentage of our of our sales today. So I think we're hitting the two uh the the two goals, and you know, we are just a few months after the acquisition, yeah, which was back in May. Yeah, um, so we are pretty happy with the momentum that we uh that we have in motion. Yeah. Now the next steps, your question was about the next steps. What we really would like to do, and we uh have a lot of RFQs ongoing, is really to win some of their Chinese customers that are interested in manufacturing either in North America or in Europe. So that's really the next step.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 2:32

Yeah, and it's that interesting synergy that you bring together when you bring together these two global footprints, one that's really strong in the West, one that's really strong in the east. The idea that you can get value from each other's customers is really important. As you say, you're excited about winning Chinese customers, but actually, when your customers come to you and say, we've got end users in India or we've got end users in Malaysia or in China, you can help there too.

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 3:00

Yeah, I mean I always we always remember uh when I was on the other side, you know, working with Al-Qatel for many, many years, and I was using EMS, and what we really wanted was for our partners to be able to have the uh very similar footprint as what we had, so that we don't have to have multiple partners, regional partners where you can leverage. So now that's what we can offer. We can offer similar footprint, geographical footprint to our larger, uh larger customers. So that's really what we expect now is not only to have common customers, but common large uh customers be able to answer these very big uh requests for quotes. Um, companies that will uh subcontract uh 30, 40, 50 million dollars or above annually uh in multiple locations. Uh that has in fact uh a very interesting impact on our organization because on the sales side, you be you need to be able to juggle with a lot of bowls, uh, people located uh in North America, in the MEA, in Asia, decision makers everywhere, and addressing these global accounts for a company like us, that's really you know, uh graduating

Global RFQs And Scaling Investment

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 4:20

to another level, yeah, which is quite exciting.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 4:23

Yeah, and I think it also gives you that ability to scale for those customers quicker. You have more capital, if you like, in the business, more momentum. So that's important as well for those customers. They want to know they can scale globally, but they also want to know they can scale quickly with you here if you need to extend the plant, if you need to build out footprint.

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 4:45

That's all true. Uh the time to market, uh, and we see that that, for example, we were talking about AI servers, where a typical time to market in the automotive industry is 12 to 18 months. Here we're talking in you know weeks for ramping up. So um it's a much quicker, um, quicker way to address the market and to address the customers. Yeah, um, what matters for also these uh large accounts that we're targeting is to be able to have competitive offers, that's for sure. But it's also to have for their partners, their EMS partner, the capacity to invest.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 5:23

Yeah.

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 5:23

Um depending on the configuration of a manufacturing line, you're talking about two to three million dollars for a line. And sometimes you need one, two, three, four, five uh to um to invest in their business. And I'm not even talking about the additional uh investment for the back end uh when uh when uh it's needed. So they need competitive offer, but they need also financially healthy uh suppliers, which we are. Yeah, not only all circuits was uh financially healthy, but now together with DBG, we really have the capacity to invest uh as we speak. Uh we are looking at you know expanding the footprint, even uh one more, uh one more location in Asia together with DBG, and we're investing in all our plants as far as all circuits is concerned.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 6:15

Yeah, and it's exciting. Not only are you the dominant EMS provider here in France, your top 10 in um in Europe, this makes you top 15 globally as well. So, in terms of your position in the market, it it makes you a much more serious player if you're a very large OEM and you're looking for a partner that that is present in many, many locations. That must resonate with not just your existing customers, but new brands that you're attracting.

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 6:42

I think it puts us in a very interesting spot because we are you know competing with uh the Premier League players now, but we continue to be uh kind of a humble local player. Yeah. Um I like always to tell uh our people in sales that we have to be in the spirit of the challenger. Uh there's always someone bigger, uh someone uh that we are competing with, and we need to deliver the best service, yeah, um, the best prices to our customers. So I like the idea. Um sometimes I make uh I use the uh advertising

Staying A Challenger As You Grow

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 7:28

of Avis, who's number two to Hertz, and they say uh we try harder. Yeah. Okay, so I like to be in this uh spirit. We have to, even though we have now a pretty good ranking in the world, uh we need to be still in the spirit of that challenger brand, absolutely pushing on and thinking in that entrepreneurial way.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 7:48

The other thing that I think has been gratifying as I've seen the development over the last 12 months is that culture that all circuits has of very strong partnerships with your customers, great relationships with the staff within, and you know, that kind of just desire to take care of everybody, that kind of family environment, that's been maintained really well. That's that that must have been very important, and something that you thought about when the acquisition happened.

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 8:19

Yeah, we uh treasure long-term relationships uh with our customers, with our employees. Um that may actually differentiate us from some of maybe other players that can, you know, hire 5,000 people and let go 3,000 people pretty easily. We don't do that. Yeah, uh, we we build a long-term relationship. Um when we look at our portfolio, lots of our customers have been with us for decades. Yeah. Um, and and we we bring on new customers every year, but not tens of them. We bring selectively customers so that every customer that we bring in has to feel he's a VIP. Yeah. He's treated as a uh as a VIP, not like a uh second grade or third grade customer. So we really want to be able to offer that uh customer relationship.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 9:22

Yeah, it's those it's that exceptional service that differentiates you from the crowd, and it's something regardless of how large you grow, you need to maintain.

CES Takeaways Robots And Smart Glasses

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 9:31

Last question I wanted to ask. I know you're at CES this year, it's always fascinating to see all the products. Two things what product would did you see that you'd most like to have at home? And second, what product did you see that you'd like most like to manufacture?

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 9:48

Um I didn't see that coming.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 9:51

Okay. Do you want a robot at home?

Stephane Klajzyngier, Deputy CEO, ALL Circuits 9:54

We have these um humanoid. Um I was more impressed by the demonstration during the Chinese New Year with all these um robots dancing uh with human beings, and um it's both fascinating and a bit scary, yeah, I would say, than what I've seen at the CS, because at the CS you see, you know, you could see one of these, one of them, but to see like an army of uh dancers, and I use army uh with caution. Advisedly, yeah, uh yeah, that's very impressing, and yeah, and it's also uh clearly the next step for AI, yeah, because right now, in uh I would say the large public uh understanding of what AI is, is really responding to prompts, you ask questions, you get answers. But now with human humanoids, um, they have to actually make decisions by themselves. Um, and you have the all the sensors, yeah, uh listening, seeing, and they have to touch and everything. So this is really the next step to um to more the general AI, yeah, and everybody's investing in there. I don't know if anyone is making money right now, but certainly there's a lot of investment. Um, there's not a lot of players in Europe. There used to be, but uh uh I don't know if that's gonna come back. So can we manufacture that? Uh that's a that's a pretty uh tall order. Yeah. Um, but that that's what actually impressed me most. Would I want this at home? I don't know, maybe for the elderly, yeah. Uh to take care of the elderly, those who are alone at home and uh and get some help. Um and some company. I think that's uh that's already uh something that is happening in Japan, for example, which is an aging uh aging country. Uh now what would I like to manufacture? We were uh we've been discussing and we do some design work for the you know the smart glasses. Um and I'm not talking about manufacturing the full glasses, but manufacturing the electronics, yeah. And that's something uh which DBG is doing. Yeah, um, that's something we all circuits are doing also in terms of design work, and that's something I would like uh to see growing because it's quite exciting. Yeah, I know you have doubts whether it's gonna be a huge market or not. I think it's interesting, it's but it will be a market. How big will that be? Way past the first uh hype curve, and now it's gonna be uh potentially mass production. So quite interesting.

Philip Stoten, Journalist and Podcast Host 12:37

Yeah, no, I think it's fascinating. I think it's fascinating what you said about seeing the robots during Chinese New Year as well, because whilst CES might be making a lot of noise about what's going on in the Americas, when we look at what's going on in China, my sense is they're just pushing on with the robotics thing, be it in a manufacturing environment or a domestic environment. And I think that's where mass adoption is going to happen first. So it's fascinating. Stefan, always a pleasure to chat. Thank you. Look forward to next time. Thank you. Thank you.